Rep. Mrvan pressed Energy Secretary on order keeping NIPSCO coal plant open

U.S. Rep. Frank J. Mrvan, D-Highland, pressed the U.S. secretary of energy this week on high utility costs and an order that NIPSCO keep coal-fired electric generation going past its retirement date at the R.M. Schahfer Generating Station in Wheatfield, which will cost an estimated $100 million and be borne by ratepayers.

Mrvan urged Secretary of Energy Chris Wright to reconsider the order during a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development hearing, urging him to consider the effect on ratepayers.

"You made a statement that Americans deserve all the power they can get when the sun isn't shining, and the wind isn't blowing," Mrvan said. "Ultimately, my district and my residents in Northwest Indiana are paying the highest energy rates in all of the country."

He expressed concerns that it would cost NIPSCO $100 million to put the plant back online.

"You said, 'If you get energy policy wrong, you get everything wrong,'" he said. "Please communicate to my residents in Northwest Indiana how forcing a coal plant to stay open, when a utility chose in 2019 to close it, now the ratepayers have to pay for the infrastructure in order to make that useful, as they are being crushed and devastated currently."

Northwest Indiana makes more steel than anywhere else in the country, Mrvan said. Electricity is one of the biggest costs of steelmaking, and the steel made in Northwest Indiana is used all over the country, so the expense will get passed on to consumers, he said.

"Please explain why that forced emergency order is benefiting the people getting crushed by those policies," he asked Wright.

Wright told Mrvan there were concerns about blackouts in Northwest Indiana if additional power generation was not added due to the additional demand from data center construction.

"The cost of blackouts is immeasurable. The cost of unreliability is massive," Wright said.

Mrvan asked how using natural gas instead of coal would cause blackouts and how the secretary could justify the rate increase.

"You ordered a tariff that would allow my ratepayers to pay more, based on your energy policy," Mrvan said. "The ratepayers would cover the cost of the infrastructure to increase the coal-fired generating plant they closed. That's a fact."

Wright said he would look into the issue and the impact on ratepayers.

"If it's not net beneficial to your ratepayers in the region, of course we will reverse it," he said.