Megan Wittman, megan.wittman@sierraclub.org
INDIANA — The Trump Administration and Department of Energy (DOE) has announced its fourth illegal extension for the Culley and Schahfer coal-fired power plants. First ordered to stay operating in December 2025, the extension follows the DC Court of Appeals’ ruling from earlier this month, which struck down Trump’s orders to keep the Campbell coal plant in Michigan to stay open despite the utility’s long-ago developed plan to retire it in May 2025.
Earlier this month, Sierra Club and partners delivered over 1,000 petitions to Governor Braun demanding that he and Attorney General Rokita take action to block Trump’s coal bailouts and prevent skyrocketing costs from falling onto Hoosiers. After the extension was announced this weekend, Governor Braun thanked the Trump Administration for renewing the orders.
“The Trump Administration wants to squeeze Hoosiers for even more money while families struggle in one of the most difficult economies of our lives, and Governor Braun is celebrating it. These orders have been a relentless attempt to keep lining the pockets of billion dollar fossil fuel companies at the expense of real, hardworking people across the state. We’re going to keep fighting these orders until they’re struck down in Indiana, too,” said Megan Anderson, Senior Campaign Organizer.
NIPSCO’s Schahfer plant hasn’t even been able to operate since the orders were issued, yet the utility wants customers to pay $38 million for the first 3 months Trump forced the plant to stay open– $2.8 million of that cost will be entirely for executive profit. CenterPoint, owner of the Culley coal plant, wrote a letter to the DOE asking them not to reissue an emergency order, stating that maintaining the coal plant “will require substantial investment to support an inefficient and increasingly unreliable asset.”
Earlier this year, Sierra Club and partners filed a challenge in the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to overturn Trump’s illegal “emergency” orders issued by DOE.
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The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.