The Trump administration's 2025 order for the decommissioning, coal-fired J.H. Campbell power plant in Michigan to remain operating due to a purported energy emergency was illegal, the U.S. Court of Appeals has declared in vacating the order.
A unanimous three-judge panel for the appellate court's DC circuit found the U.S. Department of Energy has no authority to override a state-approved power plant retirement plan.
"It is the states – informed by federal, regional, and load-serving entities’ assessments of available supply and reliability needs – that bear the responsibility to plan for and avert reliability risks on an ongoing basis. To that end, states decide which generation resources must be built, expanded, reduced, or shut down," the judges
stated in their ruling Friday, Sept. 11.
"Our reading of the text, structure, and history leaves us unpersuaded by DOE’s sweeping conception of its 'emergency' authority."
Operated by Consumers Energy in Ottawa County's West Olive, the J.H. Campbell plant – Consumers Energy's last coal-fired power plant, operational since 1962 – was slated for permanent closure on May 31, 2025, part of the utility's continued effort to reduce carbon emissions in its power generation. But the first Trump administration order in that month, citing an emergency in power capacity, kept the plant open and operating. The Trump administration has since extended the emergency order six times, most recently in August 2026 to keep the plant operational through at least Nov. 14.
The state of Michigan sued over the order, arguing the Trump administration abused its emergency powers and forced unnecessary, expensive operations. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, following the Department of Energy's sixth extension of the emergency order in August, noted that Consumers Energy's financial filings reported $295 million in costs associated with the Campbell plant from May 2025 to June 30, 2026, which the utility is seeking to recover from electric customers across the north and central regions of Midcontinent Independent System Operator.
“After six so-called emergency orders, it is clear that DOE intends to stretch Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act to force an aging, obsolete plant to operate indefinitely,” Nessel said. “Hundreds of millions of dollars in unnecessary costs are stacking up, and Michigan families will be forced to foot the bill to keep online a plant that should have been retired more than a year ago.
The federal appellate court judges ruled that the federal law cited by the Trump administration was intended for in energy supply emergencies that particularly compelled action by the U.S. Department of Energy, as opposed to more typical state decision-making.
"The Department [of Energy’s] position would empower it to pick its preferred power sources in Michigan – or, presumably, any other state – and order them to operate without regard to the multiple procedural and substantive constraints built into state reliability planning processes," the judges stated in their ruling.
Free Press messages left with the Department of Energy were not immediately returned.
Environmental groups hailed Friday's ruling.
"The court rebuked the Trump administration's abuse of emergency powers," said Michael Lenoff, attorney with the nonprofit Earthjustice, who intervened in the legal challenge on behalf of the Sierra Club and Urban Core Collective. Earthjustice represents public interest groups challenging the Department of Energy orders issued to six U.S. power plants in five states.
"The DOE needs to stay in its lane and use its emergency powers only in actual emergencies," Lenoff said. "Preventing the market-driven retirements of coal plants to advance a coal-friendly agenda is not a proper use of emergency powers."
Added Howard Learner, executive director and CEO of the Environmental Law & Policy Center, "For months, DOE's order forced Michigan families to pay an unfair and unnecessary tax just to keep a dirty, uneconomic coal plant burning."
Whether Consumers Energy will now proceed with its original plans to shut down the Campbell plant remains to be seen. The Free Press left a message with the utility on Friday afternoon.
Contact Keith Matheny: kmatheny@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan coal plant set to close was illegally kept open, court rules
