The Department of Energy ordered two Indiana coal plants on Tuesday to postpone retirement and continue operating, expanding President Donald Trump’s campaign to aid fossil fuels.
The orders for R.M. Schahfer and F.B. Culley mark the third and fourth times DOE has used its emergency powers this year to prevent coal plants from closing. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the move was necessary to ensure reliable power in the Midwest as electricity consumption rises because of data center construction. Both facilities had been slated to shut down by the end of this month.
“The Trump Administration remains committed to swiftly deploying all available tools and authorities to safeguard the reliability, affordability, and security of the nation’s energy system,” Wright said in a statement. “Keeping these coal plants online has the potential to save lives and is just common sense. Americans deserve reliable power regardless of whether the wind is blowing or the sun is shining during extreme winter conditions.”
That justification was questioned by environmentalists and consumer advocates who argued that DOE’s moves would drive up electricity prices while failing to improve reliability. They pointed to a Michigan utility that reported earlier this year that a similar order for a massive coal plant in its service territory had cost ratepayers $80 million.
“The federal government’s order to force extremely expensive and unreliable coal units to stay open will result in higher bills for Hoosiers who are already reeling from record-high rate increases in 2025. We can’t afford this costly and unfounded federal overreach,” said Ben Inskeep, program director at the Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana.
Trump ran on a pledge to revive the coal industry during his first presidential campaign, only to see a wave of coal plants shut down once he reached the White House. The president has pushed to prevent that from happening again during his second term. The Federal Power Act gives DOE the authority to order power plants to run for 90 days in the event of a grid emergency.
DOE has made frequent use of that power this year. Its first order, in May, went to J.H. Campbell days before the massive plant in Michigan was scheduled to close. The department has extended the order twice. Then, last week, Wright ordered TransAlta’s Centralia Generating Station in Washington state to stay open, despite years of planning by the company to shutter it this month. DOE has also ordered a Pennsylvania oil plant to delay retirement.
The administration announced its latest order late Tuesday. The move to keep R.M. Schahfer open is particularly notable. Closing the 800-megawatt coal plant was central to Northern Indiana Public Service Co.’s plan to shutter its coal fleet and replace it with a combination of solar and gas facilities. The plant was originally set to close in 2022, but the utility pushed the date back because of delays in bringing new solar facilities online.
Coal plant closures have roiled Indiana politics before. Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican, issued an executive order in April calling on state utility regulators to consider extending the life of every coal-fired power plant in Indiana. Braun warned that up to 9 gigawatts of coal-fired generation was slated to retire or transition to another fuel by 2038.
The utility has sent mixed signals over its plans for Schahfer. In August, it asked EPA officials to extend the deadline for storing coal ash in an unlined pond at the plant through 2031, arguing that it would help meet the administration’s reliability goals. The company noted that operating the plant past its retirement date would require “significant capital investment.”
“Granting this extension would enable us to address the Department of Energy’s recent reliability findings and align with the Administration’s stated objectives of supporting baseload generation,” wrote Fred Gomos, senior director of environmental policy and sustainability at NiSource, the parent company of Northern Indiana Public Service Co.
But even as the utility, known as NIPSCO, positioned itself to keep Schahfer open, it was publicly signaling that it was preparing to shutter the plant. The chief executive of NiSource, Lloyd Yates, told financial analysts in October that the company was committed to “advancing coal plant retirements,” even as it monitored the Trump administration’s moves. The company is also planning to close its 540MW Michigan City coal plant in 2028.
Last month, a NIPSCO executive told POLITICO’s E&E News that it plans to install 2,600 MW of gas generation on the site of Schahfer to serve new data centers operated by Amazon.com.
The company did not offer details about the effects of the DOE order on those plans.
“Compliance with this directive is mandatory. We are carefully reviewing the details of this order to assess its impact on our employees, customers and company to ensure compliance,” NiSource said in a statement. “While this development alters the timeline for decommissioning this station, our long-term plan to transition to a more sustainable energy future remains unchanged.”
The delay in closing F.B. Culley underscored how far the Trump administration is willing to go to rescue even small units at coal plants. The turbine set for closure at the plant this month is a small 14-MW generator. The plant’s operator, CenterPoint Energy, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The orders mean the Trump administration has required about 3,150 MW to stay online this year. Total U.S. coal capacity is almost 184,000 MW. DOE might not yet be done. The Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association said earlier this year it expects to receive an order directing it to continue operating a turbine at a Colorado coal plant slated to retire by the end of 2025.
