The northern Indiana utility NIPSCO held a ribbon cutting Friday for its new wind farm in White County, which the company says will power some 80-thousand Hoosier homes. Pablo Vegas, president of NiScource Utilities – NIPSCO’s parent company – says the project is part of the broader goal of retiring its Indiana coal plants by 2028. “This wind farm here at Indiana crossroads is the third out of 14 renewables projects we are going to develop here in Indiana which is part of our strategy of completely shutting down our fossil fuel coal plants that we operate here in the state.”

Environmental groups have raised concerns that the utility may be backtracking on some of its commitments – but Vegas says the transition has to include retraining for workers at coal plants who might otherwise lose their jobs.  “While it sometimes may not feel like it’s fast enough we really want to be thoughtful and planful so we don’t have any negative repercussions from these transitions.”

Vegas says he’s hopeful federal renewable incentives currently moving through Congress will pass.