The Indiana Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that aims to secure power for AI data centers. Though it was amended to put more of the risk on tech companies, House Bill 1007 could still raise Hoosiers' electric bills and prolong coal pollution in Indiana communities.

Multiple Indiana utilities are considering building new power plants to serve AI data centers — which need a massive amount of electricity to run. The bill allows utilities to recover the costs of those plants more quickly. But now 80 percent of that cost would have to come from the companies that prompted the need for the new plant — the ones building the data centers.

Still, the measure would likely end up increasing Hoosiers' bills. It requires utilities that want to close a coal plant to replace it with the same amount of energy capacity or more. That could put cleaner energy sources at a disadvantage and limit some creative ways utilities can meet that demand without adding new power plants.

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If Indiana orders a utility to keep a coal plant open, the utility could get approval to charge ratepayers to continue running the plant.

The bill also gives tax credits to companies that manufacture small modular nuclear reactors in Indiana. So far, none of the small nuclear plants proposed in the U.S. have been built and many of them have gone billions of dollars over budget.

The bill now goes back to the House for consideration.

Rebecca is our energy and environment reporter. Contact her at rthiele@iu.edu or follow her on Twitter at @beckythiele.