This story was originally published by Public News Service.
By Joe Ulery, anchor/producer
Public News Service
June 18, 2025
Indiana’s economy could take a major hit under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” now advancing in Congress.
Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University, said the legislation would reverse nearly two decades of energy expansion across the state, stalling renewable growth and driving up utility bills in homes and factories.
“(It would) have a fairly large shock to the expansion of wind and solar — which is pretty inexpensive to deploy and pretty rapid to deploy — and then put the brakes on expansion of nuclear,” Hicks outlined.
The bill repeals clean energy tax credits and slows down projects tied to solar, wind and nuclear energy. Hicks stressed the change would make Indiana less attractive to manufacturers in need of stable, affordable power. Supporters of the bill said it promotes energy independence by expanding oil and gas production and rolling back costly federal programs.
Hicks warned the state’s warehousing, transportation and information sectors could also shrink, which could lead to job losses, reduced consumer spending and less demand for housing.
“It’ll also reduce utilities employment. It will also affect the information sector,” Hicks explained. “Then, that will reduce the demand for housing and we’ll see less production there.”
The ripple effect, he added, could shrink entire local economies in regions relying on heavy industry and freight.
Robbie Orvis, senior director of modeling and analysis for the nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation, said the bill could also push out U.S. manufacturing.
“Even though there’s variation across states, and of course, it depends on what’s being built in that state, where it’s located, what its resources are, there’s a consistent significant increase in household energy spending across states with varying types of economies,” Orvis pointed out.
Public News Service is an independent, member-supported news organization providing “news in the public interest” through a network of independent state newswires.
