I'm writing because something happened last week that should concern every Hoosier who pays a utility bill. Governor Braun fired IURC commissioner Andy Zay on August 4th — the exact same day the commission published an agenda to reconsider a $71 million AES Indiana rate increase. Zay had voted on that rate case. Then he got fired. That's not a coincidence — that's a warning to every regulator in Indiana about what happens when you don't deliver the outcome the Governor wants.
The whole point of an independent utility commission is that rate decisions get made on the merits, not based on who's in the Governor's good graces. When a regulator can be removed the morning a rate vote is scheduled, the commission stops being independent. It becomes a rubber stamp. And when that happens, the people who pay the price are regular Indiana families and small businesses who have no choice but to buy power from AES Indiana. We can't shop around. We can't opt out. We depend on the commission to be a fair referee — and right now, that referee just got yanked off the field mid-game.
I'm asking you to call for a formal legislative investigation into the circumstances of Andy Zay's removal and what it means for the integrity of future rate decisions before Hoosiers are locked into higher utility costs with no independent review to protect them.
