Located immediately south of Gibson Lake, the plant's cooling pond, is the Cane Ridge National Wildlife Refuge, the newest unit of the Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge and Management Area.

[4] The Gibson Generating Station was originally built as a two-unit coal-fired power plant in 1972 by Public Service Indiana (PSI) with initial plans to build 8 units.

However, environmental regulations prevented the construction of the two remaining additional units in the original plan.

Wet FGD (Flue Gas Desulfurization) systems have been retrofitted to units 1-4.

At 4:37:00am CDT (9:37:00 UTC) on April 18, 2008, a 5.4 Mw  earthquake rocked the area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong).

The epicenter was located 7 miles (11 km) northwest of the station in nearby Wabash County, Illinois.

Some minor damage was recorded but the only visible effect was that Gibson Generating Station's Unit 4 deactivated itself because of its vibration detectors.