Rokita Sues AEP to Block the 2028 Rockport Coal Plant Closure

Attorney General Todd Rokita filed suit in federal court on August 1 to stop the scheduled 2028 shutdown of a generating unit at the Rockport Power Plant in Spencer County, targeting a federal consent decree that has been modified five times over eleven years. AEP is the sole defendant. The durable legal hook is stranded cost: prior modifications required I&M to install pollution controls at Rockport funded by Indiana ratepayers, and an on-schedule retirement of Unit 1 strands those investments. Meanwhile I&M has a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity pending before the IURC for a 1,520-megawatt gas facility, the Rockport Energy Center, on the same site, with a decision expected in early 2027. If your Southern Indiana power cost model assumed Rockport Unit 1 exits in 2028, that date is now contested.