{"document":{"slug":"filing-20260910-4000","title":"Comments of U.S. House of Representatives Victoria Spartz requesting independent federal review of the energy generation, grid resiliency, transmission, water-resource, and consumer-cost implications etc","issued":"2026-09-10","accession":"20260910-4000","docket":"EL26-70-000","group":"MISO filings","filer":"US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES","kind":"comments","file":"sources/originals/20260910-4000_01.pdf","url":"https://elibrary.ferc.gov/eLibrary/filelist?accession_Number=20260910-4000","sha256":"dff41b3156cf3d31761cb698ccb03f0e1e45e4fedbf41f3d67a29b5a78386c0b","pages":5,"tokens":1667,"emptyPages":[]},"pages":[{"page":1,"startToken":0,"endToken":308,"text":"September 9, 2026 \n \nThe Honorable Chris Wright \nSecretary \nU.S. Department of Energy \n1000 Independence Avenue, SW \nWashington, DC 20585 \n \nThe Honorable Doug Burgum \nSecretary \nU.S. Department of the Interior \n1849 C Street, NW \nWashington, DC 20240 \n \nDear Secretary Wright and Secretary Burgum: \n \nI write to request an independent federal review of the energy generation, grid resiliency, transmission, \nwater-resource, and consumer-cost implications of the rapidly expanding LEAP Research and \nInnovation District in Lebanon, Indiana, and other major data-center projects across the state. \n \nOver the past month, I have held town halls and roundtables throughout Indiana’s Fifth Congressional \nDistrict and heard substantial concerns from constituents and local communities. For two years, I have \nalso raised concerns in Congress about data-center expansion, the generation needed to serve these \nextraordinary loads, grid reliability, and consumer costs. Despite efforts to obtain clear information about \nenergy and water demands, infrastructure requirements, and costs, I have been unable to obtain clear \nnumbers for my constituents. Non-disclosure agreements and confidentiality arrangements have further \nlimited transparency on matters affecting Indiana’s grid, water resources, taxpayers, and utility customers. \n \nI support bringing advanced manufacturing and strategic industries to Indiana and the United States. \nHowever, development must be economically responsible. Hoosier families, farmers, small businesses, \nand existing industries should not subsidize extraordinary private projects through higher utility \nbills, taxpayer-funded infrastructure, or reduced reliability. \n \nLEAP Expansion and Lack of Transparency: \n \nIn February, Meta announced plans for a more than $10 billion data-center campus at LEAP, with 10 \nplanned data centers and approximately 1 GW of capacity. LEAP also includes major manufacturing \nand pharmaceutical developments with significant energy and water requirements. Yet there is no clear \npublic accounting of required generation, infrastructure costs, cost allocation, or stakeholders’ tangible \nand enforceable commitments to bear those costs. Significant questions also remain about LEAP’s effects \non the White River watershed and surrounding communities."},{"page":2,"startToken":308,"endToken":763,"text":"Several state laws enacted during LEAP’s development appear to have created significant loopholes in \ntransparency and oversight. In 2022, Indiana enacted SB 361, creating Innovation Development \nDistricts and granting significant authority to the unelected Indiana Economic Development \nCorporation (IEDC). The law allowed projects exceeding $2 billion to avoid meaningful local oversight \nand permitted negotiations with local governments on smaller projects to occur behind closed doors in \nexecutive sessions without public transparency. Shortly afterward, LEAP’s first major investment was \nannounced at $2.1 billion—just above the threshold. \n \nIn 2024, SB 256 further expanded IEDC’s authority by removing the expiration date for its ability to \ndesignate Innovation Development Districts and allowing it to incorporate territory already within \nexisting local tax-increment-financing areas. \n \nIn 2025, Indiana enacted SB 4 to provide additional review for certain large water-transfer projects, but \nLEAP’s current water-supply configuration appears to fall below or outside key thresholds for \nheightened review. \n \nGrid Resiliency, Energy Generation, Transmission, and Consumer Costs: \n \nIndiana was historically a significant net exporter of electricity, but it has become a net importer as \ngeneration has declined and demand has increased. This shift is especially concerning as firm \ngeneration is retired while data centers and other large developments add extraordinary new loads. \n \nIn 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) warned that rising demand and generation retirements \nwere creating significant reliability risks and noted that the North American Electric Reliability \nCorporation (NERC) had reclassified the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) from \n“elevated risk” to “high risk” for 2028–2031. DOE is now using emergency authority to keep four \ngenerating units at three power plants within MISO available for operation and has stated that \nemergency conditions continue in MISO in both the near and long term. \n \nMISO planning documents estimate total LEAP demand at approximately 1,200 MW. Wabash Valley \nPower Alliance’s Phase 2 project alone calls for approximately $345 million in new transmission \ninfrastructure, including 345-kV lines, substations, and related facilities. MISO’s reliability analysis \nidentified new transmission violations and worsened existing reliability issues from the additional \nLEAP load, requiring Corrective Action Plans across multiple Indiana utility systems, including projects \nassigned to Wabash Valley Power Alliance, Duke Energy Indiana, and AES Indiana. \n \nTogether with the approximately $222 million LEAP Phase 1 transmission network, these projects \nrequire hundreds of millions of dollars across multiple utility territories and raise a central question: who \nis ultimately paying? \n \nThat question is more urgent following federal action in 2026. In June, the Federal Energy Regulatory \nCommission (FERC) ordered all six regional grid operators under its jurisdiction and their transmission \nowners to justify or reform how extraordinary new loads are integrated. For MISO, FERC preliminarily \nfound that its tariff lacks adequate protections against shifting large-load transmission costs to other"},{"page":3,"startToken":763,"endToken":1169,"text":"customers, potentially producing “unjust and unreasonable rates.” FERC specifically cited inadequate \ntransparency regarding required Network Upgrades, their costs, and cost allocation. \n \nFERC directed MISO and its transmission owners to address cost shifting, Network Upgrade \ntransparency, Cost Recovery Agreements, financial protections against stranded infrastructure \ncosts, and alternatives to traditional Network Upgrades, and to report how adequate generation will \nserve both existing customers and extraordinary new loads. \n \nMISO’s Large Load Working Group in August 2026 further raised concerns about cost \ntransparency and cost shifting, but these issues remain unresolved as extraordinary new loads continue \nto advance. \n \nThe combination is particularly troubling: MISO is classified as “high risk” for 2028–2031; DOE is \nusing emergency authority to preserve generation within MISO; MISO has identified LEAP-related \nreliability violations requiring major corrective projects; and FERC has found MISO’s protections \nagainst large-load cost shifting potentially inadequate. \n \nThese concerns also arise as Indiana’s utility ownership landscape changes. In March 2026, a consortium \nled by Global Infrastructure Partners, a part of BlackRock, and EQT Infrastructure agreed to \nacquire AES, the parent company of AES Indiana, for approximately $33.4 billion. AES Indiana is \nalso seeking approval for substantial generation and infrastructure investments to serve Google’s \nproposed data-center campus in Monrovia, Indiana. These developments further underscore the need \nfor transparency regarding who finances, owns, benefits from, and ultimately pays for infrastructure \nserving extraordinary new loads. \n \nWater Resources and the White River Watershed: \n \nLEAP’s current plan calls for supplying up to 25 million gallons per day to Lebanon and LEAP, \nrequiring hundreds of millions of dollars in water infrastructure. \n \nI first raised concerns about LEAP’s water demands and their potential effects on surrounding \ncommunities in the fall of 2024, including directly with the Indiana Finance Authority and other \nstakeholders. Despite my efforts to understand the long-term water requirements, infrastructure costs, \nand potential effects on existing users, I was not able to obtain substantiated answers from the \nstakeholders. \n \nThe original proposal to supply LEAP from the Wabash River aquifer generated significant public \nobjections and ultimately was not pursued. The project then shifted toward the White River watershed, \nbut affected communities were not afforded a similarly transparent process or comparable independent \nreview before major commitments were made. \n \nAs a farmer in the White River watershed, I have seen local water challenges firsthand, including drying \nwells. Indiana Farm Bureau has likewise raised concerns about protecting local and agricultural water \nsupplies as data centers and other large developments increase demand."},{"page":4,"startToken":1169,"endToken":1539,"text":"An independent analysis must consider current and future water demands, including population \ngrowth, economic development, agriculture, and other reasonably foreseeable uses, and determine \nwhether the watershed can sustainably support LEAP and surrounding communities during normal, \ndrought, and other stressed conditions. \n \nThe effects would extend beyond Boone County, potentially affecting municipalities, farmers, aquifers, \nsurface waters, and future development throughout Central Indiana, including Indiana’s Fifth \nCongressional District. \n \nRequest for Independent Review and Concrete Data: \n \nI respectfully request that the Departments coordinate with FERC and other appropriate federal agencies \nto conduct an independent review addressing interstate grid reliability, water resources, \ninfrastructure, cost allocation, and transparency. \n \nPlease provide concrete data and a full accounting of LEAP’s projected energy-generation and \nwater requirements at full buildout; all generation, transmission, water, wastewater, and other \nnecessary infrastructure; estimated and actual costs; and how those costs are allocated among \nLEAP stakeholders, utilities, existing consumers, and taxpayers. \n \nFor transmission, please identify all LEAP-related projects and Corrective Action Plans identified by \nMISO, including those assigned to Wabash Valley Power Alliance, Duke Energy Indiana, AES Indiana, \nand other affected owners; the cost of each project; the applicable MISO pricing zone; and the amount \nexpected to be borne by LEAP customers versus existing residential, agricultural, commercial, and \nindustrial customers. \n \nPlease also identify all tangible and enforceable commitments protecting customers and taxpayers, \nincluding Cost Recovery Agreements, minimum-demand commitments, financial guarantees, collateral, \ntake-or-pay provisions, and other protections against stranded costs if projected loads are delayed, \nreduced, or never materialize. \n \nThe review should provide comparable data for the White River watershed, including current and \nprojected LEAP demands, required infrastructure and costs, and whether sufficient water will remain for \nexisting communities, agriculture, future growth, and economic development during normal and drought \nconditions. This is particularly important for some of Indiana’s poorest communities in the Fifth \nDistrict along the White River watershed, which have suffered from the loss of manufacturing and \ndesperately need economic revival. These communities should not be subsidizing development in a \n“water desert” that will also be destroying some of the most productive farmland in Indiana – and \nthe world. \n \nPlease also identify any federal grants, loans, tax incentives, permits, studies, or other federal \nsupport associated with LEAP’s generation, transmission, water, wastewater, or other major \ninfrastructure."},{"page":5,"startToken":1539,"endToken":1667,"text":"This review should not be limited to LEAP. Indiana is experiencing rapid expansion of large data-center \nprojects involving Google, Amazon, Meta, and other developers. The cumulative effects of these loads \non generation, transmission, utility rates, water resources, and taxpayers must be evaluated, not merely \neach project in isolation. \n \nIndiana should compete for advanced manufacturing and strategic investment, but development must be \neconomically responsible. Hoosiers deserve clear numbers showing what energy and water these \nprojects require, whether our grid and water resources can support them, what infrastructure must \nbe built, how costs are allocated, what enforceable protections exist, and who ultimately pays. \n \nThank you for your prompt attention. I look forward to your response. \n \nSincerely, \n \nVictoria Spartz \nMember of Congress \n \ncc:  \nFederal Energy Regulatory Commission \nIndiana Utility Regulatory Commission"}],"sections":[{"p":1,"at":0,"title":"Pages 1 to 4","method":"page range","endPage":5,"endAt":0,"startToken":0,"endToken":1539},{"p":5,"at":0,"title":"Page 5","method":"page range","endPage":5,"endAt":943,"startToken":1539,"endToken":1667}]}