Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription, on Patreon, or on Stripe. Help us produce all of the high-quality, original content we publish week after week despite the challenges of content-scraping AI, antisocial media, inflation, and other hurdles.
INDIANA — Attorney General Rokita has filed an intervention in a long-dormant case in an attempt to block the retirement of the Rockport coal plant in Spencer County, which is planned to close by the end of 2028. AEP Indiana Michigan Power (I&M), owner of the Rockport plant, is already in the process of building replacement generation.
This is yet another move by the Indiana state government to shield the highly-polluting and uneconomic coal industry, seizing on data centers as the justification, following Governor Braun’s executive order to look into extending coal plants to power AI data centers.
Additionally, the Trump Administration recently renewed its orders to keep the Culley and Schahfer coal plants open, despite both of the Schahfer coal units being broken and CenterPoint, owner of the Culley coal plant, asking the U.S. Department of Energy not to reissue the emergency order, stating that maintaining the coal plant “will require substantial investment to support an inefficient and increasingly unreliable asset.”
