JTNWI Opposes Governor Braun’s New Executive Orders Backtracking Climate Progress
Last week, Governor Braun issued a trio of harmful executive orders. Communities in Northwest Indiana will experience the impacts of these orders firsthand, from health issues, toxic air and water emissions to compounding waste issues, and more extreme weather and lake events. The governor signed the following:
EO 25-50 “Supporting Life Extension for Coal Energy Generation and Assessing Natural Gas Supplies,” which establishes evaluations of remaining coal plants, propping them up to extend their lives to meet the demand of AI data centers.
EO 25-49 “Encouraging Practical Approaches to Climate and Energy Solutions by Rejecting Social Cost of GHG and Climate Action Plans,” which prevents state agencies from factoring in the “social costs” of greenhouse gas emissions that would have been calculated to monetize the amounts of health and economic damages.
EO 25-48 “Creating Economic Opportunity and Securing Indiana’s Energy Future Through Advanced Nuclear Development,” which establishes the Nuclear Indiana Coalition to promote and attract the nuclear industry to the state.
“EO 25-50 will set the stage for a drastic increase in pollution that our communities and health systems cannot ignore. Indiana leads the nation in toxic coal ash sites. This EO could worsen issues at a key juncture in implementing new coal ash rules intended to clean up this statewide mess.”
“These orders have the potential to rapidly reverse any hard-won gains, all to service AI data centers that numerous NWI county communities have advocated to reject. EO 25-49 will hamstring state agencies from applying data towards actual prevention or policy.
“EO 25-48 will speed up and entice unproven and experimental technology of small modular nuclear reactors to Indiana. This further cements the abysmal decision by state legislators to roll out the red carpet to corporations at the expense of ratepayers, a process well underway with the advancement of House Bill 1007 and Senate Bills 423 and 425 and passage of Senate Enrolled Act 424. These executive orders, combined with legislative activities at the statehouse, will create decades more of damage to Hoosier health, the economy, and the environment, with false solutions we cannot afford. At the same time, monopoly utility companies and industry pocketbooks are enriched yet again.”
