Indiana's governor is demanding answers from the state's monopoly utility after thousands of residents in Gary and surrounding communities spent nearly two weeks in the dark, and state officials now want to know what happened to billions in customer dollars.
Gov. Mike Braun on Monday directed the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor to file a formal complaint and petition the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to open an investigation into NIPSCO, the utility responsible for electricity across northwest Indiana. The move came as residents in Gary, Hammond, and Munster entered a second week without power following severe storms that battered the region, NBC News reported.
Braun did not hold back. In a news release, the governor called NIPSCO "a monopoly utility that Hoosiers pay every month with the expectation that it will use its considerable resources to maintain its system, prepare for severe weather and restore service as quickly as possible when disaster strikes." His verdict was blunt: "NIPSCO has failed to keep its end of the bargain."
At the center of Braun's complaint is a straightforward question: where did the money go? A spokesperson for the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor said state officials want the regulatory commission to examine how NIPSCO spent more than $81 million earmarked for vegetation management between 2023 and 2025, along with $2.3 billion designated to replace aging infrastructure since 2016.
Those are not small figures. Ratepayers funded that spending through their monthly bills, and the purpose was clear, keep the grid in shape, trim trees away from lines, and replace equipment before it fails. When a storm rolls through and knocks out power to tens of thousands of customers for nearly two weeks, the obvious follow-up is whether that money actually went where it was supposed to go.
The prolonged outage in northwest Indiana has drawn attention well beyond the region. More than 38,300 homes and businesses lost power after storms struck on August 11, and some remained without electricity twelve days later, AP News reported. A lawsuit has also been filed against NIPSCO over its preparation and response.
For the people living through it, the numbers on a balance sheet matter less than the reality inside their homes. Andre Abrams, a Gary resident, told NBC Chicago he had been without power for thirteen straight days.
"It's been a lot of stress. It's Day 13 now. Tomorrow (is Day) 14."
Abrams is far from alone. Families across Gary have been forced to throw out spoiled food. Some have resorted to lighting stoves with lighters just to cook meals. Rutha Taylor, another Gary resident, raised a more alarming concern, her heart monitor stopped transmitting data to her doctors when the electricity cut out.
"I have a heart monitor and once the electricity has been off this long, the hospital, the doctors cannot monitor that monitor because it's off. So, hopefully nothing has happened to me yet."
Taylor's situation illustrates what happens when a utility failure drags on long enough to become a public health risk. A day or two without power is an inconvenience. Thirteen days without power, for a person whose medical device depends on a live electrical connection, is something else entirely.
The storms that triggered this crisis were part of a broader severe weather pattern that left at least six people dead and caused historic flooding across parts of Indiana.
Jamesetta White, also of Gary, described the fear that comes with living without lights in a neighborhood where security depends on visibility. She told NBC Chicago:
"Without lights, we're worried about staying here in the dark, but we don't want to leave our house because somebody might break in it. Then that leaves us with more problems."
White was careful not to blame the line crews working to restore service. "I know they're probably doing the best they can do. I don't want to put anyone down. I just pray to God that they hurry up," she said. But she did ask for something concrete: bill relief.
"Since we lost our food and have been out with our lights, I think they should not have us to pay a bill for a whole month. That would give us (time to) catch-up."
Gov. Braun drew the same distinction White drew, between the workers and the management. He praised the crews on the ground, saying they did "an extraordinary job," but added that "NIPSCO management has failed to deliver adequate solutions." NBC Chicago reporters observed NIPSCO crews, contracted linemen, and even ComEd workers, an Illinois utility, on the ground in Gary assisting with repairs.
Gary is one of the poorest cities in America. More than 29 percent of its residents live in poverty, and the median household income sits at $40,752, far below Indiana's statewide median of $71,959. Approximately 55,000 of the city's roughly 69,000 residents are Black. Decades of disinvestment have left the community especially vulnerable when infrastructure fails, and this outage has laid that vulnerability bare.
Gary Mayor Eddie Melton put it plainly: "We're at day 12 and 12 days is too long for families to be without power."
NIPSCO, for its part, released a statement saying it "values the regulatory process and will cooperate fully if the Commission were to open an investigation." The company said it is "committed to transparency and cooperation in providing information regarding our operations and ongoing efforts to serve our customers safely and reliably."
The utility also described itself as "committed to restoring power safely and as quickly as possible for every customer affected by this historic storm." But the statement did not include an estimated completion date for full restoration, and resident Makinna Cain suggested the work still ahead is substantial.
"Four workers went to the back to check out the transformer yesterday but... we need a whole new pole."
Needing a whole new pole is not a quick fix. And when that kind of repair is still pending on Day 13, the word "quickly" in NIPSCO's statement reads less like a commitment and more like a public-relations reflex.
The deadly flooding that struck Indiana in the same period compounded the strain on emergency resources and infrastructure across the state, making NIPSCO's slow restoration all the more conspicuous.
Whether the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission formally opens the investigation remains to be seen. But the governor's petition puts specific dollar amounts on the table, $81 million for tree-trimming, $2.3 billion for infrastructure, and asks regulators to determine whether that spending actually hardened the grid or simply padded the books.
That is the kind of accountability question that matters most when a monopoly utility is involved. NIPSCO's customers cannot switch providers. They pay their bills every month, and in return they expect the lights to stay on, or at least come back within a reasonable time after a storm. Nearly two weeks is not reasonable by any standard.
Severe weather has battered the region repeatedly in recent years. Tornadoes have torn through Illinois and Indiana communities before, leaving thousands without power. The pattern is not new. The question is whether the utility that collects billions from captive ratepayers did anything meaningful to prepare for it.
When a monopoly takes the money and the lights still go out for two weeks, the people holding the bills deserve more than a press release promising cooperation. They deserve answers, and if the answers aren't good enough, consequences.
