EVANSVILLE – In official state filings, a CenterPoint official called affordability concerns residents expressed at a recent field hearing “extreme scenarios,” and dismissed the notion that CenterPoint is more unaffordable than any other Indiana utility.
Elsewhere in the testimony, he praised his own company for potentially reducing a proposed bill increase by nine cents a month, and said affordability can only be “easily addressed” in a “utopian world.”
All of this testimony was from Richard C. Leger, the senior vice president of CenterPoint’s Indiana electric branch. He filed it with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission this month as CenterPoint continues to advocate for increasing the average base rates of Evansville-area electric bills by around $50 a month. For some customers, the jump would be even higher.
Locals already pay the highest residential electric bills in the state: something that was made apparent on Feb. 29, when more than 70 Evansville-area residents and elected officials took to the mic and begged the IURC to reject CenterPoint’s proposal.