IURC Chairman Removed Days After $71M AES Indiana Rate Hike

IURC Leadership Shakeup Leaves a Structural Gap on the AES Rehearing

On June 17, the IURC voted 3-1 to approve a $71 million AES Indiana rate increase, about 37% of the utility's original $193 million request. Braun called the decision unacceptable and directed Office of Utility Consumer Counselor director Abby Gray to petition for reconsideration and rehearing, with a filing deadline of July 7. On June 29, Braun removed Zay as chairman and installed Swinger immediately.

The problem operators should know about: Swinger recused himself from the original AES vote and from the separate Duke Energy overcharge appeal (Cause No. 46038) because of his prior work at the OUCC. The commissioner Braun installed to protect ratepayers cannot vote on either of the two cases that prompted his appointment. The underlying AES settlement also set a 4.12% base rate increase for large industrial customers, including Allison Transmission, Eli Lilly, Rolls-Royce, and Marathon Petroleum, versus 6.51% for residential customers, a gap Braun's affordability messaging hasn't addressed.

Lilly's Lebanon API Plant Wins a Federal Fast-Track

The FDA named Eli Lilly's Lebanon API plant in Boone County one of seven inaugural participants in its PreCheck Pilot Program on June 29, an initiative that reviews facilities during construction and can save up to 14 months of regulatory timeline. The plant manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients for Zepbound, Mounjaro, and Foundayo. Novo Nordisk, Lilly's primary GLP-1 competitor, is structurally ineligible for PreCheck because the program excludes facility expansions, Novo's domestic buildout relies on expanding existing sites. For Indiana suppliers in precision components, packaging, and facility services, the procurement qualification window just compressed. Get into Lilly's vendor process now, not after FDA clearance lands.

Slate Automotive Advances in Warsaw While Cummins Pauses a $2B Battery JV

Slate Automotive's customizable, sub-$25,000 electric truck is moving forward at its Warsaw plant, while Cummins has paused its $2 billion Amplify Cell Technologies battery joint venture with Daimler Truck and Paccar in Mississippi, citing weakening commercial EV demand. When asked directly whether the joint-venture agreement allows partners to withdraw, Cummins declined to answer, an indicator of active renegotiation, not a clean pause. Slate's path to its 2,000 projected Kosciusko County jobs depends on converting 180,000 soft reservations into binding $300 deposits. Suppliers to either program should stress-test a two-to-three-year delay against current production commitments.