IN House Bill 1628 takes control away from local jurisdictions
Indiana House Bill 1628 seeks to standardize the regulations for infrastructure across the state, including any that "...involves the siting, construction, or deployment of facilities, equipment, or infrastructure used in the generation, transmission, distribution, or storage of electricity, gases or fluids, or water..". On its face, this would seem to be a good idea - rather than developers and businesses facing many different regulations from cities, counties, and even townships, they would only have to deal with the state. In some states, the state entity would make sure that the local jurisdictions were on board with the equipment and that environmental concerns and potential harm to the people in the area would be taken into consideration. But this is Indiana.
This bill would do an end-run around any attempts to control or stop the siting of, say, a pipeline to take a huge amount of water from one area to another. Sound familiar? More wording - "...Prohibits a political subdivision (like our county commissioners) from taking specified actions concerning the siting, construction, or deployment of facilities, equipment, and infrastructure in connection with a multi-jurisdictional infrastructure project. Provides that a person that seeks to locate, construct, or deploy any facilities, equipment, or infrastructure in connection with a multi-jurisdictional infrastructure project is not required to obtain from a local authority a permit, or any other land use or zoning approval, with respect to the siting, construction, or deployment." (full text of the summary and updates on its status here: https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2025/bills/house/1628/details)
If this had been in effect when we first heard about the plans for the LEAP pipeline, there would have been nothing we could do to stop it. We would be stuck living with the consequences.
Please contact your representatives to urge them to vote NO on HB 1628. And then contact people you know in other areas of the state to let them know how dangerous this bill is.