Editor’s note: This article was first published by Liberation News on August 25, 2026.
As of Aug. 24, thousands of Gary, Indiana residents have gone nearly two weeks without electricity. The circumstances arose from a supercharged El Niño season, exacerbated by the capitalist-driven effects of climate catastrophe. From increasingly frequent tornadoes to floods that also ravaged South Suburban Chicago downing trees, power lines, and houses throughout the Southern and Eastern Chicago metro area. Due to the extensive damage to overhead power lines, Northern Indiana Public Service Company estimates that residents of Gary, Indiana won’t have power fully restored until late Aug. 25.
NIPSCO sells out to private investors
NIPSCO – which serves 1.4 million residents in Indiana – created this preventable crisis by failing to clear trees along city power lines in order to save money. Underlying what residents feel is negligence of clean up, was NIPSCO selling 20% of its public utility company to a private equity firm. Blackstone, through Blackstone Infrastructure Partners fund, acquired this stake in NIPSCO for $2.16 billion in June 2024. NIPSCO claims the Blackstone’s investment would be used to modernize old transmission systems and move towards renewable generation.
Yet, the notable difference two years after the acquisition, is the double to triple electricity bill increases. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission approved a rate increase by NIPSCO around the same time they sold out to Wall St. As a result, workers in Indiana have experienced a 15-26% increase subject to change at the whim of the free market. Meanwhile, NIPSCO reported generating $556.2 million in profits just from the first half of 2026 and maintains the highest electricity rates in the state.
It is no coincidence that a year after Blackstone’s investment, NIPSCO partnered with Amazon to expand data center development in northern Indiana. NIPSCO made this possible by creating an entirely separate company, NIPSCO Generation LLC (GenCo) to explicitly serve data centers. This also ensures less oversight of the subsidiary by IURC and makes any chances of public opposition slim. NIPSCO, via GenCo, wants to build a 2,300 MW gas-fired power plant to service these Amazon data centers.
This massive, proposed power plant seeks to become the third most polluting industrial facility within the state. Possibly emitting seven million tons of carbon dioxide a year. Northwest Indiana residents have already been subjected to this year’s Super El Niño weather pattern – the strongest weather event on record. The intensity of an El Niño event is determined by how hot the ocean temperatures are, which in the last several decades, has only continued to climb as industries like defense and the military expand their greenhouse gas emissions and environmental destruction.
NW Indiana residents file class-action lawsuit
Gary has the largest concentration of Black working-class Hoosiers in the state, with the city being nearly 78% Black. The city reported on Aug. 20 that more than 21,000 residents of Gary had remained without electricity. That is roughly 31% of the total city population. While residents in surrounding cities saw their power restored within the first week, Gary and Portage were among the very last to see their power return.
The glaring disparity is marked by decades of neglect and disinvestment of Gary’s fragile infrastructure. The city’s electrical grid is outdated and almost entirely above ground, snaking through dozens of neighborhoods lined with old oak trees. In contrast, wealthier, predominantly white suburbs have invested in modern underground infrastructure. Utility companies thatinvest in underground power lines, offset the cost in higher electricity bills. Despite unsustainable increases for Gary residents, the infrastructure or reliability of service has not improved.
It is in this context that a class-action lawsuit was filed against NIPSCO. The lawsuit claims “NIPSCO inadequately performed vegetation management in and around the power lines and that fallen trees led to power outages that impacted people’s lives.”
Investment in underground power lines is one clear solution to preventing a widespread power outage crisis. It is possible and has been implemented across the country. Wisconsin Public Service in 2024 replaced 2,000 miles of overhead cables with underground cables to increase the reliability of their electric grid by 95%. Additionally Florida found that underground distribution cables only had an outage of 4% compared with 24% of their overhead lines.
NIPSCO, pay up!
As Gary residents begin to have their power restored, thousands have been confronted with the question of what happens next. Residents recognize the company negligence in their neighborhoods and have pointedly called out NIPSCO more and more in the past two weeks.
During a rally inside the Tree of Life Missionary Baptist Church in Gary, guest Pastor Jamal Bryant stated:
“[The storm] did not create the problem, it exposed one. A storm can only take from you what is already fragile. Not a coincidence that Gary was the last city on the list to have their power restored. The largest Black city in the state…”
With contradictions exposed and masses of Gary residents fired up, demands for an energy moratorium, cancellation of previous and incoming energy bills, and reparations for Gary are beginning to reverberate. NIPSCO is making millions off of decades of neglect, now residents are saying it’s time for NIPSCO to pay back what was stolen!
Photo: Gary residents self-organize. Credit: Liberation News.