Court strikes Trump order that forced Michigan coal plant to stay open

A federal appeals court has thrown out a Trump administration order to keep the JH Campbell coal plant open
But for now, Consumers Energy says the coal will keep burning
The ruling applied only to one of six orders since 2025; Environmentalists say Trump is faking an energy emergency to prop up fossil fuels

A federal appeals court has thrown out a Trump administration order that kept Michigan’s Campbell coal plant open, but Consumers Energy officials say the plant will stay online for now.

That’s because the Friday ruling applies only to the first of six emergency orders Energy Secretary Chris Wright has issued since May 2025 to keep the plant open for 90-day increments.

“Consumers Energy is reviewing today’s court ruling,” spokesperson Katie Carey said. “While that happens, we are continuing to comply with the current 90-day Department of Energy order.”

In a unanimous decision, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the Trump administration had overstepped its legal authority when it invoked emergency powers meant only for rare circumstances to keep the plant open.

Attorney General Dana Nessel, who along with Minnesota, Illinois and several environmental groups, sued the Trump administration for its actions at Campbell, said she was relieved the court “saw through this facade.”

“This ruling proves what we have been saying all along: this administration does not get to invent fake emergencies to bypass the rule of law against the best interests of Michigan residents,” Nessel said in a statement. “We remain committed to fighting these nonsensical orders and protecting our ratepayers.”

As the Trump administration launched a broad push to steer the nation away from clean energy and toward fossil fuels, Wright turned to a little-used Federal Power Act provision that lets the federal government seize authority over power supplies during emergencies.

Wright cited a desire to “minimize the risk of blackouts” during peak summer energy demand.

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The move irked environmentalists and ratepayer advocates, who noted that long-range energy projections from state and regional regulators raised no concerns about power shortages.

Accusing the Trump administration of faking an emergency to justify its favoritism toward coal, Nessel filed a June 2025 lawsuit that led to Friday’s ruling.

In a written opinion for the three-judge panel, Circuit Judge Cornelia Pillard said emergency intervention should be a “a narrow, last-resort backstop,” and administration officials failed to justify its use.

“The mere possibility of an electricity supply shortfall — with no specifics about its potential severity, timing, location, or likelihood — does not warrant an emergency federal response,” Pillard wrote.

Allowing the federal government to override state judgment with such little evidence, Pillard wrote, “invites frequent federal interventions that are unsupported by the statute and threaten the stability of the energy market.”

Spokespeople for the Energy Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

$259 million so far

The Campbell plant was originally scheduled to close in May 2025, a decision that had been in the works for years and involved Consumers purchasing a natural gas plant to offset the lost power.

Coal is among the dirtiest and most expensive power sources available, and the switch was expected to save customers $600 million. Instead, keeping Campbell open had cost $259 million as of August.

Michigan requires utilities to demonstrate that they have sufficient generating capacity to meet customers’ needs for the next four years and file long-term plans that look 20 years into the future. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which manages the grid in Michigan and neighboring states, also conducts annual exercises to forecast power needs.

Neither have raised concerns about imminent energy shortages. Longer-term, some analysts are concerned about rising energy demand from energy-hungry data centers.

Campbell is one of several coal plants being kept open past their planned retirement dates as the Trump administration looks to forestall clean energy development and prolong the use of fossil fuels.

That conflicts with Michigan’s state energy strategy, which requires utilities to achieve 100% “clean” energy by 2040. Experts have told Bridge Michigan that utilities will struggle to comply if the federal government continues forcing them to burn coal.

Leading global scientists warn that greenhouse gas emissions from coal and other fossil fuels are dangerously warming the Earth’s atmosphere. Disappearing winters, deadly heatwaves and intense wildfires are just a few of the symptoms.

Environmentalists celebrated Friday’s ruling, calling it a win for ratepayers and the climate.

“The Department of Energy’s unlawful actions attempted to make families and businesses in the Midwest wastefully pay hundreds of millions of dollars for a coal plant that should have been shut down over a year ago,” said Ted Kelly, director and lead counsel for US Clean Energy at Environmental Defense Fund.

“That’s why these aging coal plants are scheduled to retire in the first place — they are incredibly expensive, dangerous to our health and break down frequently.”

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