Michigan City activists urge NIPSCO to follow through on coal plant closure

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. -- Community activists gathered outside NIPSCO’s Michigan City Generating Station on Monday, voicing concerns about the continued use of coal and urging the utility to follow through with its plans to retire the facility by 2028.

The protest comes as the Trump administration has ordered NIPSCO’s R.M. Schahfer Generating Station in Wheatfield, Indiana, to remain available for operation through Dec. 18, raising concerns that Michigan City’s planned coal plant retirement could also face delays.

NIPSCO announced plans in 2018 to transition away from coal-fired electricity generation as part of a broader shift toward cleaner energy sources. The company’s plans included retiring the Michigan City facility, which has stood along the Lake Michigan shoreline since 1931. Its coal-fired unit began operating in 1974.

For residents who have been anticipating the plant’s closure, the possibility of a delay has raised questions about the community’s future and the environmental impact of continued coal operations.

“I bought a house here in Michigan City two years ago because I thought this was coming down,” said Michigan City resident Eileen Mark.

The U.S. Department of Energy issued an emergency order directing NIPSCO to keep Schahfer’s coal-fired units available to operate over a year past the units planned retirement. The administration has cited electricity reliability concerns.

Ashley Williams, executive director of Just Transition Indiana, said the decision to keep the Wheatfield facility available reflects growing energy demand, including demand associated with artificial intelligence and data centers.

“The Schahfer generating station in Wheatfield — the reason that they’re actually trying to operate that plant again that was slated for retirement late last year, is because the federal administration is saying, ‘Keep that plant online because we need it for AI,’” Williams said.

Michigan City residents are concerned that the growing demand for electricity could influence NIPSCO’s long-term plans, particularly as a Google data center is expected to come online in the city in 2027.

“This is a 100-year-old generating station. It’s obviously leaking toxins, pollutants, contaminants into the groundwater and obviously spewing the same into our air, and it needs to come down,” Eileen Mark said.

Community members with Just Transition Northwest Indiana and Indiana Beyond Coal organized Monday’s protest to call for accountability and urge the company to maintain its retirement timeline and it’s 2018 plan to include using more renewable energy sources.

Williams said the facility has long limited opportunities for residents, and many have been looking forward to its retirement.

“It’s really stolen paradise from us,” Williams said. “It’s just been a huge barrier for communities in accessing the lakefront.”

Retiring the plant could eventually open approximately one mile of lakefront for potential community use.

“It could be a site of enrichment for the community, to be potentially a public access site,” Williams said. “None of that is possible now with NIPSCO potentially reconsidering, reevaluating that retirement that we have been long anticipating.”

With the utility developing its next 20-year energy plan, residents are urging the company to stay true to the retirement timeline.