Rep. Mrvan Targets DOE Orders Keeping NIPSCO's Schahfer Coal Units Online in Wheatfield

Daniel BurkePublished every day

U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan (D-Highland) introduced H.R. 10687 on October 2, aimed at the Department of Energy's use of emergency authority to keep NIPSCO's Units 17 and 18 at the Schahfer Generating Station in Wheatfield, Jasper County, and CenterPoint Energy's Unit 2 at the Culley plant in Warrick County running past their 2025 retirement dates. The current order runs through December 18. NIPSCO is separately seeking to recover more than $100 million in costs tied to the order, a claim the Citizens Action Coalition's Kerwin Olson calls illegal. Seven days before the orders were reissued in September, a D.C. Circuit panel vacated a near-identical DOE order for a Michigan coal plant, ruling the agency lacked authority absent a genuine emergency. IURC filings show Schahfer's units are offline for maintenance even under the must-run mandate, which is delaying NIPSCO's own $7 billion plan to convert the site to gas to serve the Amazon Web Services data center buildout in Hobart.

Impact

The orders were issued just seven days after a D.C. Circuit panel vacated a parallel DOE order for Michigan's J.H. Campbell plant, ruling DOE lacked 202(c) authority absent a genuine emergency, meaning Indiana's orders and NIPSCO's cost-recovery case now carry heightened legal risk of clawback. Compounding the irony: IURC filings show Schahfer's units are actually broken and offline for turbine and boiler maintenance even while under the federal 'must-run' mandate, and the lingering order is delaying NIPSCO's own $7 billion gas-and-storage conversion of the Schahfer site meant to serve the $15 billion Amazon Web Services data center buildout in Hobart.

Watch

Whether DOE issues a fifth round of 202(c) orders before the Dec. 18 expiration, and how FERC/IURC rule on NIPSCO's $100M+ cost-recovery request given the post-Campbell legal exposure.

For the huddle

If we're on NIPSCO's system, have we separated how much of our current rate pressure comes from Schahfer compliance costs today versus the gas-plant capital recovery charges likely to arrive in 2027-2028?

NIPSCO is already seeking to recover over $100 million tied to the current federal order, and that's separate from the capital costs of the planned gas conversion, which are likely to show up on your bill starting in 2027 or 2028.

Sources

U.S. Rep. Mrvan introduces legislation against federal power plant orders · chicagotribune.com

Earlier coverage

From the brief, October 8, 2026

Indiana Opens Nuclear Ready Communities Program Without the Money Texas and Tennessee Put Up
Indiana Industrial Property Tax Increase Hits 25.8%, IMA Warns of Bigger Burden Ahead
Rep. Mrvan Targets DOE Orders Keeping NIPSCO's Schahfer Coal Units Online in Wheatfield
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