"The Trump administration has already ordered a Michigan coal plant to run past its retirement date. Two polluting, inefficient plants in Indiana may be next."

"The Trump administration’s determination to keep fossil-fueled power plants running beyond their scheduled closure dates is creating uncertainty about the fate of two Indiana coal facilities set to retire by the end of this year.

Northern Indiana Public Service Company’s 722-megawatt R.M. Schahfer plant, in the small town of Wheatfield, is supposed to close this month. So is CenterPoint Energy’s 90-megawatt F.B. Culley 2, along the Ohio River in southern Indiana.

But the utilities explained to state regulators during a December 2 biannual hearing on reliability that they are preparing for potential Trump administration orders to keep the units operating, and some fear such mandates could come any day.

Already this year, the Department of Energy has forced a coal plant in Michigan and an oil and gas plant in Pennsylvania to operate past scheduled retirement dates."

Kari Lydersen reports for Canary Media December 15, 2025. [2]