Vigo County Commissioner Chris Switzer recently shared a post on social media about his experience attending the Nuclear Energy and the AI Future conference in Indianapolis. 

“The future won’t wait for communities that aren’t paying attention…Artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, data centers, and the next generation of energy production are transforming Indiana. Those changes will influence where businesses invest, how reliable our electric grid remains, and what opportunities exist for communities like Vigo County.”

According to the conference website, featured speakers included Patty Liao, Clean Energy Infrastructure and Procurement for Meta, and Jeff Miller, Senior VP of Business Development for TerraPower.

In January it was announced that Meta and TerraPower had reached an agreement to build a nuclear facility that would power Meta’s Prometheus data center, one of the largest in the world, located in New Albany, Ohio.

Switzer has also recently applied for an open seat on the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, and was chosen as one of twelve semi-finalists to be interviewed by the IURC nominating committee last week. 

When asked what changes he wanted to bring to the commission, Switzer emphasized his desire to help educate the public, and mentioned regrets he had about making a public statement without the proper information. 

“I made the mistake of going to a public meeting in support of my constituents and saying, ‘if you don’t want this in your backyard I will help you find a way to prevent this from happening.’ Only to call my state legislator and say, oops I really made a mistake there by saying that publicly.”

A member of the nominating committee then asked, “So you regret speaking up for your constituents who didn’t want that on their property?” To which Switzer responded “No, I regret not being informed enough to make an informed statement.”

According to the IndyStar, the IURC position comes with a salary of $152,000, and whoever is selected may be asked to help reconsider the commission’s recent controversial decision to approve a $71 million rate increase for AES.