In a blow to the Trump administration’s plan to revive coal power, a federal appeals court ruled that its order forcing a major plant to stay open is illegal.
The decision throws into peril several other such orders at coal plants, efforts that underpin the administration’s strategy to boost the fossil fuel.
The case involved the J.H. Campbell coal plant in Michigan, which the Energy Department blocked from closing in May 2025. The administration’s order has cost ratepayers more than $259 million, according to the plant’s owner.
President Donald Trump’s administration has forced several other coal plants to stay open, with costs to ratepayers totaling nearly $1 billion, according to utility filings.
Frank Sturges, senior attorney at Clean Air Task Force, said the administration’s order forcing the Michigan plant to stay open “was a misuse of power.” His group estimates that allowing plants scheduled to close by 2028 to retire on schedule would save more than $28 billion in health-related costs and prevent nearly 2,000 deaths across the country.
The Trump administration had argued the plants need to stay open to prevent outages as demand for energy surges. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was unpersuaded by its argument, finding that the Energy Department overstepped its authority.
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