A General Assembly interim committee on energy has offered no recommendations in its final report after hearing large manufacturers square off against the state's utilities on Sept. 2 at the statehouse.
The large manufacturers want more options to control spiraling energy costs that hurt their competitiveness, while the state's utilities say some of those options would hike electric bills for everyone else.
The chairman of the interim committee, Sen. James Merritt, R-Indianapolis, said last week so much remains unsure about federal clean air rules that making big changes in state utility regulations in the upcoming legislative session does not make sense.
However, he said the General Assembly might be able to help manufacturers like Subaru of Indiana Automotive, in Lafayette, which have expressed an interest in producing their own electricity, by allowing pilot co-generation projects.
"We will go project by project and see how we might be able to help industrials with a clean power plant," he said in speaking about setting up such a program.
Co-generation plants, also called combined heat and power, are considered clean and efficient because they recycle the heat produced in generating electricity for other industrial purposes.
Indiana's competitiveness when it comes to industrial electricity rates has slipped markedly in the last decade. From 2003 to 2014, industrial electricity prices increased 75 percent in Indiana, while only increasing 37 percent in the nation as a whole, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data.
The interim committee Merritt chairs was tasked specifically with examining state law in relation to co-generation plants. Manufacturers say current state law restricts how the plants are financed and where they can be sited, thus discouraging their use.
Rep. Christina Hale, D-Indianapolis, a committee member, said despite the lack of any recommendation in the committee's final report, it is critical for legislators to keep forging ahead on energy issues.
"This absolutely is not the last word on this topic," Hale said. "This is something tremendously important to our state and to major employers in our state."
Even without a recommendation, the hearing on expanded use of co-generation on Sept. 2 was productive because it has furthered dialog on the subject, according to Jennifer Wheeler Terry, the legislative liaison for Indiana Industrial Energy Consumers. The group is composed of 26 of the state's largest manufacturers.
"We are encouraged by what we are hearing at this point, but we don't yet know what will happen in the 2016 session," Terry said.