Michigan City, Indiana, Activists Urge NIPSCO to Retire Coal Plant by 2028
Activists in Michigan City urged NIPSCO to retire its coal-fired generating unit as planned in 2028, warning that rising electricity demand from regional data centers could extend the plant’s operation. The protest also highlighted coal ash contamination risks and the plant’s environmental legacy.
Activists gathered outside NIPSCO’s Michigan City Generating Station to demand that the utility honor its planned 2028 retirement of the coal-fired unit. Organizers, including Just Transition Northwest Indiana and Indiana Beyond Coal, said the plant’s pollution and coal ash pose continuing risks to Lake Michigan, Trail Creek and local drinking water sources. Sierra Club representatives also expressed concern that a federal emergency directive requiring NIPSCO to keep another coal plant available could set a precedent for delaying the Michigan City closure.
The demonstration came amid rising regional electricity demand linked to data centers. NiSource, NIPSCO’s parent company, has agreed to supply 1,100 megawatts to a planned Microsoft data center campus in Northwest Indiana, while state regulators approved an energy-capacity trading framework intended to accommodate large data center loads. NIPSCO is preparing a new 20-year energy plan but had not commented on the protest by the publication deadline.