08/20/2026
NIPSCO's Linemen Are Working Around the Clock. Its Executive Suite Isn't Losing Sleep Over a Generator.
Vince Parisi holds the titles of President and Chief Operating Officer — under NIPSCOs parent company
NiSource, whose President and CEO is Lloyd Yates. In 2025 Yates' disclosed compensation included roughly $1.19 million in salary, $2.26 million in bonus, and $9.6 million in stock awards — north of $13 million in total, per SEC-derived compensation data. The AFL-CIO's Paywatch project put his prior-year total compensation at $12.78 million. Parisi's exact NIPSCO-level pay isn't separately broken out in public filings, but he sits in the same executive compensation structure.
None of that is a personal attack on either man. It's the plain math of who is, and isn't, exposed to the cost of the system they run.
The Aug. 11 derecho that tore through northern Indiana was, in NIPSCO's own words, the largest outage event in company history — wind gusts near 100 mph knocked out power to roughly 301,000 customers, about 60% of NIPSCO's electric base, according to CBS Chicago and WNDU. Governor Mike Braun declared a state emergency and activated the Indiana National Guard. NIPSCO's crews, contractors, and mutual aid personnel have been working around the clock since, with a target of 90% restoration by Aug. 18 and full restoration by Aug. 21. That is not a short outage. For a lot of us, it's day seven and counting.
NIPSCO customers are still absorbing a 16.75% residential electric rate increase approved in 2025 — about $23 more a month for the average household — phased in through this year, on top of a separate commercial rate case (Cause No. 46120) authorizing a 20.15% overall revenue increase. That's the backdrop for a week where families are burning through coolers of ice and phone battery packs. Meanwhile, the people signing off on those rate cases are not the ones worrying about fuel for a generator - $13 million plus can provide comfort in a storm.
What isn't in dispute: the men and women physically restoring power — the linemen climbing poles in derecho debris, the mutual-aid crews who drove in from other states, the dispatchers and customer-facing staff fielding an unprecedented volume of calls — are doing genuinely hard, dangerous work right now, and they deserve the credit the executive suite doesn't.
Draw your own conclusions.
📞 Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 Demand an end to energy monopolies.
🔗 Find your representatives: congress.gov
📞 Governor Braun's Office: 317-232-4567
🔗 Contact Gov. Braun: in.gov/gov/contact-gov-braun
📞 Indiana Senate: 800-382-9467 | Indiana House: 800-382-9842
🔗 Find your state legislator: iga.in.gov/information/find-legislator
—
Sources: CBS Chicago, WNDU, WSBT, InkFreeNews, Inside INdiana Business, NiSource SEC filings, AFL-CIO Paywatch
🔗 File a complaint or comment on rate cases: in.gov/iurc
—
Sources: CBS Chicago, WNDU, WSBT, InkFreeNews, Inside INdiana Business, NiSource SEC filings, AFL-CIO Paywatch
