US rejects CenterPoint’s bid to close Indiana coal plant

The Trump administration rejected a request from CenterPoint Energy to allow a 60-year-old coal plant in Indiana to close, forcing the utility to keep operating a unit it says is costly and unreliable.

The clash underscores a broader federal push to keep aging coal plants online that the administration says are needed to support the electric grid amid rising power demand, even as some utilities resist orders to extend the life of older units.

In a letter, CenterPoint said extending an order halting the plant’s planned December 2025 retirement would require millions of dollars in upgrades and lengthy outages “to support an inefficient and increasingly unreliable asset.”

“These factors make clear that extending the life of Unit 2 is neither practical nor financially responsible, underscoring the need for a more prudent and economically sound path forward,” the utility wrote. It added the plant accounts for less than 1% of total installed capacity in its regional grid. 

The Feb. 17 letter asked the Energy Department not to renew its December order keeping the plant open. The agency extended that directive, along with another order for an Indiana coal unit owned by the Northern Indiana Public Service Company, through June 21 in March.

The Energy Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said the orders are needed to prevent costly blackouts and supply electricity for power-hungry AI data centers and US manufacturing. 

“That’s how the lights stay on, that’s how factories and things get built,” Wright said Thursday in testimony before a House committee. “But there has been a political desire to put on intermittent unreliable sources onto our grid everywhere.” 

The letter was provided Thursday by the Citizens Action Coalition, an Indianapolis-based advocacy group, that obtained it through a proceeding with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. 

“This letter shows that even utilities like CenterPoint admit that there is no grid emergency and that coal plants are too unreliable, expensive, and polluting to continue operating,” said Ben Inskeep, Citizens Action Coalition’s program director. “The federal government’s unlawful orders directing utilities to keep dilapidated and unreliable coal plants open at a massive and growing cost to consumers is an outrageous abuse of power that will cause Americans’ energy bills to continue to increase.”

CenterPoint said it would comply with the Energy Department order.

(By Ari Natter)