A federal appeals court on Friday shot down the Trump administration’s claim of sweeping emergency authority to keep a doomed Michigan coal plant running, dealing the first legal defeat to the president’s push to throw U.S. coal a lifeline.
In a unanimous ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found that the Energy Department overstepped when Secretary Chris Wright ordered a utility to keep operating the 64-year-old J.H. Campbell plant in May 2025, days before it was set to retire. Wright had invoked a provision of the Federal Power Act meant for genuine emergencies like wars and natural disasters.
The court wasn’t buying it.
“Our reading of the text, structure, and history leaves us unpersuaded by DOE’s sweeping conception of its ’emergency’ authority,” wrote Judge Cornelia Pillard, calling the provision “essentially a narrow, last-resort backstop.” There was, she added, no real emergency to justify overriding Michigan’s own carefully planned shutdown. Two other judges joined the opinion.
The decision is a win for Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota and the environmental groups that sued, and it could ripple well beyond one plant. The administration has issued similar orders to keep at least six coal plants online nationwide, several of which are now being challenged in the same court.
Michael Lenoff, an Earthjustice attorney who represented the challengers, called the ruling a rebuke of the administration’s abuse of emergency powers.
“DOE needs to stay in its lane and use its emergency powers only in actual emergencies,” Lenoff said.
The Campbell order was extended again and again, running up more than $248 million in costs by June, even as operators said the plant was never actually needed to keep the lights on. The administration can still appeal.
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