Construction begins this week on the new substation on Rohrer Road, and Current in Carmel reports that Duke has not been compliant with Carmel city requirements for the project:
In November 2017, the Carmel City Council passed an ordinance outlining steps for Duke to take before building a new substation along Rohrer Road. It requires Duke to consult with the city’s Board of Public Works to discuss the location of the new substation and receive board approval before beginning construction. It also states that the project should place utilities underground to the fullest extent possible.
Carmel spokesman Dan McFeely said Duke has “not followed the ordinance for the construction” and that the city has not filed a lawsuit at this time. Soon after the ordinance passed last fall, Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard said he anticipated it would be up for “a judge to decide” if Duke must follow the city’s ordinance.
In Indiana, unlike other states, our elected officials have no say in what power companies do, (though the officials at the state level could give themselves that power if they had the will to get it done).
Right now, utilities are bound only by the guidelines of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (a non-elected bureaucracy), and they have imminent domain. Those two things mean that Duke Energy is free to do just about whatever it wants, even ignore local ordinances and run roughshod over individuals’ freedoms.
The only tool we have is to complain loudly and often. If we make Duke afraid that we’re angry enough to vote in representatives that will curtail their power, they’ll back down. So complain, complain, complain!
(P.S. Keep an eye on Fox 59 news tonight for a segment on this project.)