June 23, 2026 - Two Indiana coal plants, previously set to cease operation June 21, will continue running until at least September under new federal orders.

Since President Donald Trump took office last year with vows to reinvigorate the coal industry, the United States Department of Energy has ordered a handful of aging coal plants around the country to maintain operations, overruling state and regional plans to retire the generators with section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act.

NIPSCO's R.M. Schahfer Generating Station in Jasper County and CenterPoint Energy's F.B. Culley Generating Station in Warrick County were slated to cease operations in 2025, but the coal plants have been kept online for months through several rounds of 90-day emergency orders. After a third round of orders last week, representatives from both utilities say they will comply with the DOE to keep the plants functioning until Sep. 19, 2026.

The DOE orders say the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, the regional electric grid encompassing most of Indiana and much of the Midwest, faces an energy reliability emergency. 

"Emergency conditions resulting from increasing demand and shortage from accelerated retirement of generation facilities will continue in the near term and are also likely to continue in subsequent years. This could lead to the loss of power to homes and businesses in the areas that may be affected by curtailments or power outages, presenting a risk to public health and safety," U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright says in the orders.

But not everyone agrees that an emergency exists.

"The only reason that they're doing these 202(c) orders is to give a lifeline to coal," Jennifer Washburn, the regulatory director of Citizens Action Coalition, said.

In an emailed statement to IndyStar, MISO spokesperson McKenzie Barbknecht wrote that the grid operator will comply with the orders, adding that MISO had planned for the Indiana coal plants to retire when the company forecast power supply.

"Our Planning Resource Auction indicated adequate resources are available to meet projected demand and maintain reliability in our region," she wrote.

With millions of dollars possibly on the line for ratepayers, several national and local watchdog groups have turned to the courts to challenge the notion of an emergency, attempting to force the Trump Administration to close the plants.

"We're getting more and more data points that support the idea that there's certainly not a reliability emergency in Indiana or anywhere else in MISO," Tony Mendoza, a senior attorney with the Sierra Club's Environmental Law Program, said. "This is a figment of the Trump administration's imagination."

In addition to Indiana-specific litigation, groups like the Sierra Club, Citizens Action Coalition, Hoosier Environmental Council and Just Transition Northwest Indiana are watching how a legal fight over the DOE's principal order, which targeted a coal plant in Michigan, pans out. Oral arguments in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit began in May, but it could take months for a decision.

Advocates are also watching how the orders impact ratepayers.

Earlier this year, NIPSCO and CenterPoint asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to allow the utilities to recover costs from ratepayers beyond Indiana. In March, FERC allowed the utilities to charge ratepayers in 11 states across the MISO region. The Sierra Club appealed the decision and Mendoza said the case is heading to Washington.

The exact price of keeping Schahfer and Culley online is still unclear, but Mendoza said the utilities will have to file specific expenses with FERC, which could demystify the tab.

Both of Schahfer's coal units are currently offline for repairs, and NIPSCO did not immediately respond to a request for clarity on associated expenses.