Sierra Club: Indiana Utilities Falling Behind on Clean Energy Transition

Written from press release

INDIANAPOLIS — Sept. 22, 2025 — Indiana’s major electric utilities are backsliding on promises to move toward renewable energy, with none improving their scores in the Sierra Club’s latest Dirty Truth About Utility Climate Pledges report.

The report, released Monday, graded 75 utilities nationwide on their plans to retire coal by 2030, avoid building new gas plants through 2035, and transition to clean energy by 2035. The national average score was just 15 out of 100.

Duke Energy Indiana once again ranked the lowest among the state’s five monopoly utilities, earning a failing grade of 0%. The utility has delayed its coal exit from 2035 to 2038, cut nearly 3,800 megawatts of planned clean energy from its 2021 blueprint, and will lose its remaining wind power by the end of the decade.

“Duke Indiana is not only failing compared to its monopoly utility peers in Indiana, it is also among the worst when compared to utilities across the nation,” said Megan Anderson, a senior organizer with the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. “There’s no better example of Duke’s renewable energy failure than the fact it will not have any wind energy resources after a power purchase agreement expires in a few years.”

CenterPoint Energy earned a 33% grade, down from last year, after canceling renewable contracts and signaling coal plants could remain online past 2030. AES Indiana held steady at 57% but plans up to 1,600 megawatts of new gas-fired power plants to meet the demands of data centers.

NIPSCO, once considered a state leader in transitioning away from coal, saw its score drop from 80% to 57% due to planned new gas plants. Indiana Michigan Power fell to 48% from 66% after its parent company sought to shift coal plant costs onto Indiana customers.

Sierra Club officials criticized Gov. Mike Braun and President Donald Trump for supporting coal interests and approving rate hikes that they say saddle Hoosier families with higher bills while delaying investment in renewables.

“Governor Braun, monopoly utilities, and tech companies are driving up monthly utility bills for Hoosier families by straddling us with expensive coal and gas costs to feed power-hungry data centers,” Anderson said.

The Sierra Club called on utilities and state regulators to scrap coal plants sooner, avoid gas expansion, and commit to more affordable renewable energy to protect both consumers and the climate.

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