DOE Closes $1.5 Billion Loan to Convert Idle Indiana Coal Plant Into Fertilizer Facility

Overview

• The loan to Wabash Valley Resources will repurpose the shuttered West Terre Haute gasification site to produce anhydrous ammonia for agriculture.
• DOE says the facility will use coal and petroleum coke as feedstocks and target production of about 500,000 metric tons per year.
• The plant has been idle since 2016 after Duke Energy retired it under a settlement with environmental groups, and Wabash Valley Resources purchased it that year.
• The Trump Department of Energy closed a September 2024 conditional commitment under its Energy Dominance Financing Program, marking its second finalized Biden-era loan after a $1.6 billion Midwest power line project.
• Earlier project descriptions cited petcoke-only feedstock and underground carbon storage, which coverage reports but does not confirm as terms of the finalized deal.