A federal appeals court on Friday struck down an order from the Trump administration that forced a coal plant in Michigan to stay open past its scheduled retirement date — dealing a blow to President Trump’s efforts to promote the coal industry.
For more than a year, the Energy Department has ordered the J.H. Campbell coal plant in West Olive, Michigan, to keep running despite its plans to close in May 2025, citing an “energy emergency.”
On Friday, a three-judge panel at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the administration overstepped in its use of emergency powers.
The Michigan plant is one of several coal plants that the Energy Department has forced to stay open using emergency orders under a provision of the Federal Power Act. The provision had been used by previous administrations for only a few days at a time during extreme weather events.
The Trump administration has repeatedly renewed its orders governing the plant every 90 days. The state of Michigan sued, joined by Illinois, Minnesota and a coalition of environmental groups.
In the ruling, Judge Cornelia Pillard emphasized that it’s up to states to decide how to manage power generation, and that the federal government should only intervene when states and grid operators are unable or unwilling to respond.
“The court rejected the Department of Energy’s use of emergency authority, and agreed with our interpretation that emergency authority is to be used for actual emergencies, not picking preferred resources or addressing issues that Congress and the law have entrusted states to deal with,” said Michael Lenoff, lead attorney for Earthjustice, one of the environmental nonprofits that joined the suit.
The Energy Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment or indicate whether the government would appeal the ruling.
Consumers Energy, which owns the J.H. Campbell plant, began preparing several years ago to shut down the 64-year-old facility. The company’s plan to replace the energy the plant created using a mix of sources, including natural gas, won approval from state regulators and operators of the electric grid. According to the court ruling, regulators found its plan would “provide less polluting electricity at lower prices, and more than offset generation lost when the old plant closed.” But before its retirement, the Energy Department ordered its continued operation.
The change in plans was expensive; it cost $259 million to comply with the emergency orders through the end of June, Consumers Energy reported in a recent financial filing. The costs are expected to be spread among electricity customers in the region.
Coal use has been declining in the United States for decades, replaced by natural gas, solar, and wind power. Coal is the dirtiest of the fossil fuels; when burned, it produces more air pollution and higher greenhouse gas emissions than any other source of energy.
President Trump has been a vocal supporter of the coal industry. During his second term, his administration has tried to slow the retirements of coal-burning power plants by loosening environmental rules and awarding grants for plant upgrades. The growth of energy-hungry data centers has also contributed to the delay of some coal plant closures.
At the start of 2025, utilities were expected to close roughly 8.5 gigawatts of coal capacity. Instead, they retired just 2.7 gigawatts. Coal generation is still on track to drop by about 9 percent this year compared to last year.
Consumers Energy said it would continue to keep the plant operating because the court case was focused on the first three-month emergency order, which has expired. There have been five subsequent orders from the Energy Department. The company said it was still reviewing Friday’s court decision.
“Ultimately, we will follow the law and work to ensure that everyone who benefits from power from the Campbell plant across the Midwest pays their fair share,” said a spokesman, Brian Wheeler.
The Energy Department could appeal the decision or continue issuing emergency orders with new justifications that better conform to the court’s ruling, said Sanjay Narayan, managing attorney at the Sierra Club. But the decision makes clear that it’s up to states to decide when to retire power plants, he added.
“In our view, the next move should be for D.O.E. to stand down, but as we see with this administration, it is often reluctant to stand down,” he said.
The Energy Department has also issued emergency orders to keep coal plants open in Washington, Indiana and Colorado. Preventing the nation’s coal plants from retiring for the duration of Trump’s term could cost consumers at least $3 billion per year, according to a report from the consulting firm Grid Strategies.
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