EVANSVILLE, Ind. — CenterPoint Energy today announced its 20-year energy plan, which includes ending coal burning at its Culley 3 unit in Warrick County. Culley 3 is the last of CenterPoint’s coal units to be announced for retirement. AB Brown retires this year and Culley 2 retires in 2025. CenterPoint also plans to end its cooperation agreement with Alcoa to burn coal at Unit 4 of its Warrick Super Polluter coal plant in 2024.
Throughout this planning process, the Sierra Club has called on CenterPoint to take advantage of tax credits for renewable energy in the Inflation Reduction Act. Even larger credits are available for clean energy built in “energy communities” like Southwest Indiana where coal plants and mines are located, and given that CenterPoint’s customers pay the highest electric bills in the state, the utility should take every opportunity to save customer money.
Of Indiana’s five investor-owned utilities, only Duke Energy Indiana plans to burn coal after 2030, the year by which we need to end coal-burning to avoid worsening climate impacts, according to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
In response, Wendy Bredhold, senior campaign representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign in Indiana, released the following statement:
“Over the last eight years, Sierra Club’s team of local volunteers has been deeply engaged in CenterPoint’s energy planning processes, and this plan, while not perfect, represents significant progress as a result of those efforts, alongside other consumer and environmental advocates. One of our campaign goals is to phase coal out by 2030 to improve public health, clean up our air and water, and preserve the climate. This plan helps reach that goal.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.