For Michigan City residents, the NIPSCO generation station is an ever-present reality, said Ashley Williams, executive director of Just Transition Northwest Indiana.
“It’s part of my life in every way,” Williams, who is also a Michigan City resident, said. “And to think that site potentially could be retained for fossil fuel use, for that plant to stay, continuing to burn fossil fuels, is really heartbreaking for me.”
Nancy Moldenhauer, Michigan City councilwoman and president of Save the Dunes, said residents “don’t appreciate being polluted on.”
“This is an area that is in the middle of a municipality,” Moldenhauer said. “We’re just getting very excited about potentially having direct access to our lakeshore again. From an environmental and an aesthetic standpoint, this would be a significant move backward instead of forward.”
In February, NIPSCO came to a settlement with LaPorte County in its electric rate case, which increased electric rates 22%. As part of the case, NIPSCO agreed to engage in studies to determine the potential of converting the Michigan City Generating Station.
The study will look at converting the station to a combined cycle gas turbine, gas peaker generating plant, locating battery energy storage systems, or other energy technology, according to the agreed addendum.
NIPSCO should complete the study within six months of the issuance of the case’s final order and make a public version of the study available to LaPorte County Board of Commissioners.
In a statement Friday, NIPSCO’s Director of Communications Wendy Lussier said the utility understands the future of the Michigan City Generating Station is important to residents. The utility plans to retire the plant by 2028.
In addition to potential reuse options for the plant, NIPSCO will also look at other LaPorte County sites that could be suitable for a gas turbine, peaker, battery storage or other energy technology.
“Evaluation of conversion or reuse options will include an initial review of potential environmental compliance activity, including compliance with environmental regulations related to coal combustion residuals,” Lussier said. “If approved by the Commission, NIPSCO expects these studies to be completed in late 2025 or early 2026.”
With the agreement, NIPSCO will also make investments of up to $5 million at LaPorte County properties to ensure electric service is available. NIPSCO will also look at how it can bolster development at the Kingsbury Industrial Park, including investing up to $3.5 million for distribution system and substation upgrades.
Williams wasn’t surprised that LaPorte County intervened in the rate case settlement, but she was surprised by what was included.
“(JTNWI) really, deeply believes that gas conversion at that site is just not a viable use,” Williams said. “For us, it’s really ensuring that the priority is a complete cleanup of the toxic coal ash at that site, and that site can ultimately be opened for public access and use.”
Indiana has 45 miles of shoreline on Lake Michigan, Williams said, and the majority of the shoreline is occupied by industry. She said it’s a “rare opportunity” for Michigan City to potentially have more access to the shoreline when the plant is shut down.
“That would once again open up the dunes, open up that shoreline for everyone to access, and for it to no longer be this barrier between us and NIPSCO,” Williams said.
Williams wants to see a more transparent, public process where community members can present their vision on what could be at the Michigan City Generating Station.
Moldenhauer would also like to see Michigan City leaders and residents consulted more in the study.
“To have things be done to us without even the courtesy of being consulted is not conducive to good relationships between different bodies of government,” Moldenhauer said.
Moldenhauer was surprised to see NIPSCO will complete this study because she said the utility has made “great, significant strides” toward clean green energy in the last several years.
“For me, from a philosophical and logical standpoint, it just doesn’t make sense,” she added. “From what I’ve seen, their new commitment has been green energy.”
In January, the Michigan City Generating Station was included in the results of a Purdue University study that deemed the location “too populated” and unsuitable for small nuclear reactors, which are advanced nuclear reactors that have about one-third generating capacity of traditional nuclear power reactors, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Lussier told the Post-Tribune in January that NIPSCO is in the middle of a multiyear initiative to close its coal-fired generating stations, according to archives. At the time, Lussier said NIPSCO plans to replace sites with more cost-effective, efficient and sustainable sources, including wind, solar and battery storage.
“I do firmly believe that clean, renewable energy is the direction to pursue,” Moldenhauer said. “It’s gotten to the point where NIPSCO said it’s more cost-effective.”
Moldenhauer remembers several years ago when officials looked to convert the Michigan City plant, and the cost was too high to pursue conversion, she said. However, Moldenhauer said she doesn’t know if it’s different now because data centers and AI expansion have become more prevalent.
Both Moldenhauer and Williams wonder if national and state changes to environmental regulations might impact the future of the Michigan City Generating Station. Moldenhauer believes companies like NIPSCO will value money more than government officials’ policies.
“I always say, ‘Follow the money,’” she said. “The economy, the money, the investments, the profit, those are going to be the stronger drivers than what’s happening at the state or federal governmental policies.”
Environmental justice has been under attack, Williams said, especially after Gov. Mike Braun signed an executive order prohibiting the use of “environmental justice” in permitting, enforcement and grant decisions, according to Post-Tribune archives.
Williams is worried how government policies will transfer over to the Michigan City plant and NIPSCO’s plans.
“Indiana is very much going to be a rubber stamp for what happens at the federal government level,” she said. “We see that it’s going to be this echo of what’s happening at the federal level, but how that’s going to happen, only time will tell.”
mwilkins@chicagotribune.com
