Indiana data center projects like Google in Allen County are predicted to consume massive amounts of electricity.

“Data centers are one of the most energy-intensive building types, consuming 10 to 50 times the energy per floor space of a typical commercial office building,” according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The LEAP district pipeline project in Boone Country revealed issues in the state’s water management. These are two of the reasons Sen. Eric Koch, R-Bedford, said he has been the most prolific writer of environment-related bills this session, authoring four concerning energy management and three on water utility regulations.

As chair of the Senate Utilities Committee, this is perhaps unsurprising.

“That’s what we do,” Koch said.

It is what he has done for a while, serving as a member of the National Conference of State Legislatures Energy Supply Task Force, the Indiana Geological and Water Survey Advisory Council, and the National Council on Electricity Policy’s Executive Committee.

Elected in 2016, Koch serves as co-chair of the Energy Supply Task Force and received the Commitment to Rural Water Excellence Award from the Alliance of Indiana Rural Water in 2022.

Koch told TheStatehouseFile.com that the number of bills on energy (about 13 proposed bills) and water resources (roughly 11) this year wasn’t anything new, but they did gain lots of attention.

Opposition to the LEAP pipeline project, for example, gained media focus when the Citizens Action Coalition accused it of mismanagement. Tippecanoe County residents expressed concerns that the estimated billions of gallons of water piped to Lebanon would impact well water and irrigation.

“The IFA (Indiana Finance Authority) studies have shown us that Indiana has plenty of water. We don’t have scarcity of water. But it’s not always where we need it,” Koch said. “I felt that we had to build a framework, particularly in the context of the LEAP discussion.” 

Senate Bill 4, authored by Koch and his Republican colleagues Sens. Chris Garten, R-Charlestown, and Susan Glick, R-LaGrange, would regulate the transfer of large quantities of water. It is currently in the House Committee on Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications. Senate Bill 28, also co-authored with Glick, focuses on utilities competing for groundwater. It is now with the House Committee on Natural Resources.

“I think really, between those two bills, we’ve built a very responsible framework that really balances all of the interests in the context of water,” Koch said. 

Many environment-related bills this session have focused on shifting water and energy regulations to state authorities like the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC). The Hoosier Environmental Council (HEC) has had concerns about this shift, arguing local officials are better judges of water control and management within their own communities. 

David Van Gilder, senior policy and legal director for HEC, referred to House Bill 1037 as an example of regulatory power moving to the state and away from local councils. HB 1037 prohibits local municipalities from adopting a rule or ordinance regarding stormwater permits that is more strict than those set by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. It currently sits in the Senate Environmental Affairs Committee.

“People who work for cities, who work for municipalities, counties are actually very good at producing fair rules to manage construction sites so that stormwater doesn’t run off construction sites and pollute water,” Van Gilder said.

But Koch said state agencies have local communities’ best interests in mind.

Koch said the IURC is “not a partisan agency” and relies on advice from lawyers and technical experts to make decisions. Intervention can and does happen, and the Office of Utility Consumer Council advocates for the public, he said. Koch feels that it does a good job reflecting public interest. He described the system as “very successful.”

Concerning energy resources in the state, Koch is a sponsor of House Bill 1007, which adds regulations on large electricity consumers. It is sitting with the Senate Committee on Utilities, which Koch chairs.

Indiana’s energy policy is reliable and affordable, according to Koch. When data centers enter Indiana, Koch emphasized that he and other legislators have the responsibility to ensure that energy demands do not negatively affect the state.

Data centers propose to use one or more gigawatts of electricity, equivalent to the power produced by 294 utility-scale wind turbines, 100 million LED light bulbs, or half the energy produced by the Hoover Dam.

Koch expressed that he and his colleagues have authored all these bills with the future of Indiana’s resources in mind. 

“I’m hoping that the policy we have set in place is the correct one. We believe it is,” Koch said. “I’ve been working on water policy for over a decade, and we’ve got a lot of data collected. We’re going to continue to collect more data, and it’s a dynamic field, but I think Indiana is in a pretty good place.”