Gov. Mike Braun and Attorney General Todd Rokita want to keep coal burning in Indiana despite concerns the fossil fuel will harm public health and the environment while also increasing Hoosier energy bills.
Braun, through a July 31 executive order, wants to stop coal-fired power plants from closing and potentially reopen plants utilities previously retired. Braun argues in the order that data center development in the state has significantly increased energy demand due to artificial intelligence.
Rokita, on the same day, asked an Ohio federal district court for permission to intervene in a 2007 consent decree outlining the closure of a coal-burning plant in Rockport along the Ohio River.
Both moves follow President Donald Trump’s intervention of the closure of two coal-burning power plants in Indiana in previous months.
Combined, the state and federal efforts support the Trump administration’s attempt to prop up the coal industry that has been in decline since utilities have moved toward cleaner, less expensive forms of energy production.
Keeping existing generation from coal-fired power plants on the grid has become essential as energy demands increase in the state, Braun’s spokesperson Griffin Reid wrote in an email to IndyStar.
“Prematurely closing a still operational coal plant and replacing it with a new plant online incurs a cost that is typically passed to the consumer, so leaving the existing coal plants online protects consumers,” Reid wrote.
Coal creates higher costs, advocates say
Consumer advocates like Kerwin Olson, executive director of Citizens Action Coalition, disagree.
“What it means for consumers is higher costs,” Olson said.
Economic and planning decisions to retire coal plants are made through processes, analysis and data, Olson said, and coal plants have been phased out due to how expensive they are to operate and maintain.
That longer-term decision making is done through the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, and Olson said the executive order is an attempt by Braun to circumvent that regulatory process.
“[The IURC] is the appropriate venue to have this conversation,” Olson said. “This is not a political decision.”
One coal plant affected by Braun’s order and Rokita’s motion to intervene is the Indiana Michigan Power company’s Rockport Unit 1. This coal-fired generation source was the topic of a consent decree in which all parties, including I&M’s parent company American Electric Power, agreed to shut down the unit by 2028.
Indiana utility responds to state intervention
In response to Rokita’s attempt to intervene, I&M spokesperson Stephanny Smith said the utility appreciates the attorney general’s attempt to make sure Indiana has the energy sources it needs.
“We share that commitment and remain focused on providing safe, reliable, and affordable service while meeting all applicable legal, regulatory, and environmental requirements,” Smith wrote in an email to IndyStar.
In response to IndyStar’s requests for comment on his motion in the Ohio court, a spokesperson emailed a quote from Rokita’s July 31 press conference in Rockport.
“Today we face surging electricity demand driven by manufacturing, population growth, and broader electrification, which are all good things,” Rokita said. “We also now have to account for the hot button topic of data centers. However, you feel about data centers, they’re gonna suck up a lot of energy if they come up online. Grid operators have warned of the reliability risks. So, in short, we need as much generating capacity as we can make available.”
Indiana intervention is too late, advocates say
Rokita’s attempt to reverse the decision to stop burning coal at Rockport is not timely, said Tony Mendoza, a senior attorney with the environmental group Sierra Club. The advocacy organization has been party to the AEP consent decree since it began in 2007.
“Rokita is really late to this case,” Mendoza said. “I&M has been planning to retire its share of Rockport for many years, and they have a proposed gas plant right now in addition to [electricity] generation they’ve built in other places around Indiana to replace Rockport.”
In 2019, when AEP agreed to close its plant at Rockport in a modification to the original consent decree, then-president Nicholas Atkins said the agreement that Rokita is now trying to intervene in “greatly benefits our Indiana Michigan Power customers.”
“It eliminates the need to spend nearly $1 billion to install flue gas desulfurization, or scrubber, equipment at Rockport Plant while still achieving emission reductions at a lower cost and sooner than previously planned,” Akins said in a 2019 news release.
In Mendoza’s estimation, Rokita has quite an uphill battle to convince the Ohio court that Indiana has a right to intervene. Outside of being late to the proceedings, Rokita must prove a unique interest in the case.
“He cannot represent Google’s unique interest in wanting to build a data center,” Mendoza said. “I expect the judge to have a lot of concern about if the Indiana attorney general meets all the intervention standards.”
Burning coal and its effect on public health, the environment
The Rockport coal-fired plant was the subject of a 2021 Center for Public Integrity and The Weather Channel investigation where it was dubbed one of the country’s largest “super polluters.”
Burning coal emits pollutants including toxins such as mercury and other heavy metals. It also produces planet-warming greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. The ash left over from burning coal is also polluting waterways and threatening drinking water.
Sierra Club’s Hoosier Chapter Director Robyn Skuya-Boss said future generations will be looking back at the decisions being made in the state today about the future of energy.
“We need to be making the right choices in this moment and retiring the Rockport plant is the right choice both in terms of avoiding future expensive costs at these aging plants, as well as protecting communities though public health impacts,” Skuya-Boss said.
Karl Schneider is an IndyStar environment reporter. You can reach him at karl.schneider@indystar.com. Follow him on BlueSky or Twitter @karlstartswithk
IndyStar’s environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana wants to keep coal burning. Braun, Rokita cite data centers.
Reporting by Karl Schneider, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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By Karl Schneider, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
