Gov. Mike Braun on Monday asked for an investigation into NIPSCO following devastating power outages in northwest Indiana that have left some residents in the dark for two weeks.
Around 9,600 customers were still without power by Monday afternoon. The majority are located in Gary. In total, more than 374,000 lost power following severe weather on Aug. 11.
The request comes as residents’ mounting outrage over the prolonged outage has led to a class-action lawsuit against the utility company. Gary Mayor Eddie Melton, a former NIPSCO employee, also faces criticism that he’s failing to hold the company accountable.
Here’s the latest on how local residents and elected officials are pushing back against what they say is a dangerously slow response to the largest power outage in NIPSCO’s history.
Investigation ordered
Related
Parts of Gary are still without power. Residents blame NIPSCO
Utility says it’s working around the clock, but city officials say they feel ignored.
Braun on Monday directed the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC) to file a complaint and petition the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) to launch the investigation into NIPSCO.
The governor asked the investigation to include whether the utility adequately maintained vegetation and cleared rights-of-way to protect its infrastructure. Braun said he also wants answers on whether funding approved by state regulators for infrastructure and reliability improvements was spent as promised.
“NIPSCO is a monopoly utility that Hoosiers pay every month with the expectation that it will use its considerable resources to maintain its system, prepare for severe weather and restore service as quickly as possible when disaster strikes,” Braun said in a release. “NIPSCO has failed to keep its end of the bargain.”
Braun said on-the-ground crews have done an “extraordinary job,” but added that NIPSCO’s “management has failed to deliver adequate solutions.”
NIPSCO said it is aware of the governor’s directive and “will cooperate fully if the Commission were to open an investigation.”
The investigation request comes after nearly 40 churches in Gary last week urged state officials to look into the “systemic failures of our utility providers.”
“We are deeply disturbed by the blatant inequities in service restoration,” the National Baptist Convention, USA, which represents the churches, said in a release. “Power is returning to affluent areas while working-class, minority neighborhoods remain plunged in darkness.”
The church organization said the blackout was predictable due to NIPSCO’s decades of “non-maintenance and a refusal to invest in aging infrastructure.”
Class-action lawsuit
A group of northwest Indiana residents filed a lawsuit Aug. 17 in Porter County alleging NIPSCO failed for years to properly control trees and other vegetation that has led to ongoing power outages since 2024.
Credit: Photo provided by Linda Barnes-Caldwell
Jack Tipold, filing on behalf of around 15 other residents, said he was in the middle of an oral surgery on Aug. 11 when the power went out, leading him to be discharged without adequate pain control.
The lawsuit argues that the utility company ignored public requests for vegetation management and failed to conduct pole and line inspections that would have detected “hazardous vegetation issues riddled through northwest Indiana.”
NIPSCO said it “strongly disagrees” with the characterization of its vegetation-management plan presented in the lawsuit and will “vigorously defend” itself through the legal process.
The utility said its spending on vegetation management has doubled since 2016.
A judge has yet to certify the lawsuit as a class-action lawsuit, and NIPSCO has not yet filed a formal response.
Gary mayor questioned
Gary Mayor Melton came under fire last week from former deputy mayor Trent McCain, who accused Melton of not pushing back against NIPSCO’s rate hikes or calling out the utility for its response to the power outages.
Melton worked as NIPSCO’s manager of federal government and community relations prior to serving as a state senator from 2016-2024. His wife is currently employed at NIPSCO as a program manager, according to her LinkedIn account.
McCain accused Melton of remaining silent as NIPSCO implemented steep rate hikes on Gary residents. The utility’s customers saw a 50% increase from 2023 to 2025, according to an annual state survey. Those rates have decreased slightly since then, a July 2026 survey found. Still, NIPSCO’s rates are the highest in the state.
He also alleged Melton didn’t publicly demand answers on Aug. 19 during a call between NIPSCO executives and regional mayors impacted by the power outage.
“I do not allege that anyone did anything unlawful,” McCain wrote in an op-ed piece published Friday. “I allege something worse for a mayor: that when the moment came to be inconvenient to NIPSCO, he was not.”
Darren Washington, a member of the Gary Common Council, in an op-ed piece sent Monday said “reasonable questions” are unavoidable when an “individual has been employed by a utility and later holds public office with responsibilities involving that industry.”
“Those questions should not be dismissed as personal attacks,” he wrote. “They are questions the public has a right to ask.”
Emails sent to Melton’s public-relations team requesting a response were not returned Monday.
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FPI News reporter Carson Gerber covers healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, immigration … and just about any other topic that’s shaping how we live in Indiana today. Reach him at 765-204-4250 or carson.gerber@fpinews.org.
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