Environmental groups ask court to nullify order keeping Indiana coal units firing

Several environmental and customer advocacy nonprofits are trying to prevent the Trump administration from extending the life of two coal plants in Indiana that had been slated for retirement at the end of 2025.

The Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, Just Transition Northwest Indiana and the Hoosier Environmental Council have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to invalidate orders that have kept coal units at the R.M. Schahfer power plant in Wheatfield and a coal unit at the F.B. Culley generating station near Newburgh operating.

In December, the U.S. Department of Energy said power generated by the units – operated by Merrillville-based NIPSCO and CenterPoint Energy in Evansville, respectively – were needed to ensure reliability of the Midwest’s electric grid due to “a shortage of electric energy” and “a shortage of facilities for the generation of electricity.”

But national nonprofit group Earthjustice — which filed the petition on behalf of the Indiana organizations and others — says that no emergency exists and that keeping the plants operating costs customers hundreds of thousands of dollars per day.

“The plant owners and everyone with responsibility for grid stability planned several years ahead for the orderly retirement of these aging units,” said Earthjustice senior attorney Sameer Doshi in a statement. “Now the Trump administration is forcing continued and unnecessary burning of coal, which will mean more air and water pollution as well as higher electricity bills. We’re asking the Court to curb this abuse.”

“These illegal orders rob CenterPoint and NIPSCO ratepayers of the savings promised them from the closure of these antiquated and climate wrecking coal units,” Kerwin Olson, executive director of the Citizens Action Coalition, said in a press release.

The petition asks the Court of Appeals to review the Department of Energy decision and rule that the agency misused its authority. The department did not respond to a request for comment.

The DOE orders were meant to keep the coal units operating for 90 days, a period set to end on March 23. But observers say federal authorities are likely to issue additional emergency orders.

In Michigan, the Trump administration issued four successive emergency orders that have kept the J.H. Campbell coal plant operating long after Consumers Energy planned to retire it in May 2025. According to Earthjustice, Consumers Energy said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that complying with the federal government’s emergency orders cost $135 million from the end of May through December 2025, which it plans to recover from ratepayers.

Already, NIPSCO has told the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission that it intends to seek recovery of costs associated with the ongoing operations of the Schahfer units. NIPSCO did not immediately comment on questions about the petition.

CenterPoint said in a statement about the F.B. Culley unit that “at this time, there are no bill impacts to customers, but we remain committed to keeping potential impact top-of-mind as we explore options for recovery of the costs associated with operating the unit.”

The statement said the company made the “unit available to the market” in compliance with the federal order.

“We will continue to work collaboratively with our federal, state and local stakeholders and remain focused on delivering reliable electric service to our southwestern Indiana customers and their families,” CenterPoint said.

The moves by the DOE and the utility companies come as the federal government under President Trump, a Republican, has done an about-face on coal-fired power generation.

In March, the Environmental Protection Agency promoted the “biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history,” announcing its intention to peel back dozens of environmental protections that had been implemented by the previous administration of Democrat Joe Biden.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the actions marked “the death of the ‘green new scam.’” Fossil fuel rules were big targets of the Trump administration, including provisions that had been meant to reduce carbon emissions from coal plants and mandate greenhouse gas reporting. The Trump administration has also extended deadlines for dozens of coal-fired power plants to comply with certain Clean Air Act rules.

And in February, the EPA revoked a finding that climate change is a threat to public health, which had long been the basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.