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Speaker 1: Indiana rate payers getting squeezed regulators. They're listening better late

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Speaker 1: than never. So the IURC is hosting a listening tour

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Speaker 1: around Indiana to talk about energy and utility bills. Regulators

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Speaker 1: they want to hear from you. They want to know

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Speaker 1: about your rising electric, gas or utility bill. They want

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Speaker 1: to hear about your struggles paying monthly energy costs, and

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Speaker 1: they want your ideas for making bills more affordable and transparent.

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Speaker 1: You're encouraged to bring your utility bill to the sessions

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Speaker 1: so you can discuss specifics. I'm sure you'll be really specific.

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Speaker 1: I'm imagining in my mind all of the things that

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Speaker 1: you want to say that I can't say on the

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Speaker 1: radio right now. But you've got an affordability listening tour.

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Speaker 1: How government does that sound? Scheduling meetings about problems instead

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Speaker 1: of actually solving them.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I will give the IURC a little credit. So

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Speaker 2: there's a couple of them in central Indiana. So if

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Speaker 2: you want to go to one of these listening tours,

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Speaker 2: we've got one that is going to be on April

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Speaker 2: ninth at the Noblesville City Hall and then on April

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Speaker 2: twentieth at the Ivy Tech conference center and ballroom. There's

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Speaker 2: also one that's going to be in Columbus and that's

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Speaker 2: going to be at the Columbus City Hall on April second.

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Speaker 2: So those are the three of these that it will

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Speaker 2: take place in Central Indiana. And yeah, I mean, I

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Speaker 2: don't know why the IURC is asking, you know, voters

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Speaker 2: to bring their utility bills. They already have access to

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Speaker 2: every rate filing, every revenue report, every profit margin that

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Speaker 2: these companies have, so they've already got all the information

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Speaker 2: at their fingertips. But yeah, go ahead and bring your

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Speaker 2: utility bill, especially if it's gone up like crazy, and

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Speaker 2: talk to them about it, how much it's gone up

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Speaker 2: like crazy the last couple of years, and how it's

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Speaker 2: unaffordable and how this isn't something that can continue. This

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Speaker 2: does remind me a lot about a few weeks ago

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Speaker 2: we talked about black Rock purchasing AES, and AES was

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Speaker 2: going to do a listening to and then they canceled

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Speaker 2: it because they got a bunch of nasty comments about

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Speaker 2: it on social media. So hopefully, hopefully we don't get

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Speaker 2: that here because these listening tours, I mean, I don't

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Speaker 2: know how effective they're going to be but we need

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Speaker 2: them to take place because the public needs to be

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Speaker 2: heard on this. And of course, as conservatives, remember we

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Speaker 2: always do this respectfully. We don't make it peacefully. Peacefully

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Speaker 2: and respectfully somebody, we've just had the anniversary of your

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Speaker 2: property tax rally at the state House and somebody posted

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Speaker 2: on social media some of the videos from there and

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Speaker 2: people that were causing trouble there on the other side,

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Speaker 2: and that we're arrested. That's not what we do as conservatives.

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Speaker 2: We do this peacefully and respectfully. So if you go

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Speaker 2: to these listening tours, that should be your paramount concern

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Speaker 2: on this is to do it in an informed, smart

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Speaker 2: and respectful and calm manner.

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Speaker 1: So each session is an open forum. You're going to

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Speaker 1: be able to speak with regulators face to face and

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Speaker 1: share your experience, also ask questions. But the utility of affordability,

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Speaker 1: it's becoming a major concern for many people here in Indiana.

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Speaker 1: Some bills rising sharply and costing more relative to income. Right,

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's going to get to a point where

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Speaker 1: some families are going to have to be making a

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Speaker 1: choice between ac and groceries. I was gonna say heat,

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Speaker 1: but now since we're switching seasons. I mean, you're going

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Speaker 1: to be what sweating in your family room or you're

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Speaker 1: going to spend more time at the grocery store where

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Speaker 1: it is air conditioned and looking at those prices, and

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Speaker 1: it just kind of seems like that's not a state problem,

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Speaker 1: that's a leadership problem.

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Speaker 2: Well, it seems like there's a lot of talk. There's

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Speaker 2: a lot of talk, Oh, we're going to do a

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Speaker 2: listening tour and we're gonna, you know, have a new

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Speaker 2: board on the I U r C. And we're gonna

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Speaker 2: do all these other things, and there's a lot of

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Speaker 2: talk about it. But what consumers and hoosiers feel every

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Speaker 2: day is their utility prices are going up, their property

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Speaker 2: taxes are going up, the cost of living is out

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Speaker 2: of control for the average every day hoosier. And until

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Speaker 2: something is done about that, you can have listening to

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Speaker 2: her and you can talk about, oh, we're planning for this,

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Speaker 2: and we're going to do this and in a couple

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Speaker 2: of years these changes are really going to pay off.

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Speaker 2: It really doesn't matter because at the end of the day,

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Speaker 2: my gas prices are higher, my living costs are higher,

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Speaker 2: groceries are still too expensive, my taxes are too much

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Speaker 2: and I'm struggling just to pay my everyday bills.

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Speaker 1: You can't just listen and expect to solve a problem.

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Speaker 1: You need reforms that is going to protect your right payers.

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Speaker 1: You had mentioned gas costs. The average cost of gasoline

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Speaker 1: three ninety seven. Yeah in Indiana.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So this is according to Triple A and we've

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Speaker 2: been following this pretty closely every day since since the

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Speaker 2: war in Iran broke out, because that is driving gas

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Speaker 2: price is higher. So the average price for a gallon

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Speaker 2: of gas in the state of Indiana as of today

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Speaker 2: right now is three dollars and ninety seven cents. By

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Speaker 2: the way, that is also the exact to the penny,

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Speaker 2: the exact price of the national average three dollars in

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Speaker 2: ninety seven cents. It was about two dollars and seventy

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Speaker 2: two cents before the war started. So we're at a

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Speaker 2: dollar and twenty five cents higher. Gas is a dollar

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Speaker 2: and twenty five cents higher today than it was before

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Speaker 2: the war in Iran started. I do think it's important

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Speaker 2: to note that the all time high price for a

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Speaker 2: gallon of gas in the state of Indiana was in

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Speaker 2: June of twenty twenty two and it was five dollars

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Speaker 2: and twenty three cents. So we still got a long

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Speaker 2: way to go to get to the Biden.

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Speaker 1: Not at record levels.

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Speaker 2: We're not at record levels yet. Hey, we try a

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Speaker 2: little bit harder, maybe we'll get there. We just put

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Speaker 2: our effort into it. We might get to record level

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Speaker 2: gas pricing, but we're still actually a pretty good way

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Speaker 2: off from that right now. But still a pain in

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Speaker 2: the butt because it's a buck twenty five more than

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Speaker 2: what it was just a month