The author is a Junior at Bloomington High School South in Bloomington, Indiana.

Dear President Trump,

I thought my state’s energy utilities were the worst they could be: Indiana is the second highest coal consumer of all US states, and promised transitions to renewable energy sources have been continuously pushed back. Not to mention that our five biggest energy companies have been inflating rates while consumers appeal to regulators without avail.

But this letter isn’t addressed to them. It is addressed to you, President Trump, because somehow, despite my harshest pessimism, Indiana’s energy transition is getting worse.

On April 8, 2025, less than three months into your second term, you declared an “energy emergency” and signed Executive Order 14241 to intensify American reliance on coal. The order aims to increase coal production and exportation while eliminating regulation of environmental pollution in federal agencies.

Now, just a year later, two Indiana coal plants, the Schahfer Generating Station and the Culley Generating Station, have agreed to push back their retirements from December 2025 until this summer. These plants had been set to retire for decades, but, at your command – and despite predicted losses of over $200,000 daily – they complied. That is, as long as they could hand these costs off to consumers.

It’s not the first time this has happened. Until a recent ruling found it illegal, Duke Energy Indiana had pushed the expense of cleaning up coal ash spills onto energy bills, with one such instance totaling millions of dollars for consumers. Coal ash is a byproduct of power plants that contains toxic metals and is expensive to remove from groundwater, albeit concern for the expense seems to be alleviated when you’re not the one paying.

My state has a long history of burning coal, and the impacts on public health are clearer than the White River (though if you lived here, you’d know that’s not a very high bar). Hoosiers are exposed to contamination in our air and drinking water which leads to “heart disease, respiratory problems and premature deaths,” according to the NYT, especially in areas closest to power plants. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but coal really isn’t the “beautiful, clean” energy source that you had wished.

By contrast, renewable energy is increasingly cheap – $38 per mega-watt hour to coal’s $71 – readily available, and safer for public health. Thanks to consumer and environmental advocates, Indiana utilities have slowly been adding alternative sources to the grid; however, progress is threatened by your executive orders and the coal lobbyists at your right hand.

Thus, I am asking you to call an end to your “energy emergency,” unless you want to solve the real problems, because if you truly cared for the greatness of our country, you would act in the best interest of Americans. Rescind Executive Order 14241 and let Indiana’s coal plants retire so that our long-awaited clean energy transition can begin.

Sincerely,

Lydia Arnold

Let the Coal Plants Die © 2026 by Youth Environmental Press Team is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/