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Michigan fights Trump administration in court over order keeping coal plant online
News
Michigan fights Trump administration in court over order keeping coal plant online
Updated: May. 15, 2026, 4:00 p.m. | Published: May. 15, 2026, 3:45 p.m.
An aerial image of Consumer Energy’s J.H. Campbell Generating Complex in Ottawa County, Mich. on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. The complex is made up of three units that were built in 1962, 1967 and 1980. It is the last of Consumers' coal-fired plants and is slated to be retired from service by May 31, 2025 as part of the utility's clean energy plan.
Train cars full of coal from Wyoming wait to be unloaded at Consumer Energy’s J.H. Campbell Generating Complex in Ottawa County, Mich. on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. The complex is made up of three units that were built in 1962, 1967 and 1980. It is the last of Consumers' coal-fired plants and is slated to be retired from service by May 31, 2025 as part of the utility's clean energy plan.
By Lucas Smolcic Larson | lsmolciclarson@mlive.com
WASHINGTON - Do Trump administration orders keeping an aging coal power plant on Lake Michigan online represent a lifeline as power-hungry data centers burden the grid? ... Or do they amount to a costly overreach that throws years of careful state planning to the wind in the name of a fabricated emergency?
Those competing narratives clashed in a federal courthouse near the U.S. Capitol Friday, May 15. ... Attorneys representing Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois and nine environmental groups sought to convince a panel of federal appellate judges that Trump officials are illegally forcing the J.H. Campbell plant in Ottawa County to stay open, now almost a year past its intended shutdown date.
{snip}
The arguments mainly hinged on what defines an “emergency” allowing Wright to step in to order plants stay running under a 91-year-old section of the Federal Power Act.
In the past, the powers have generally been used for a few days at a time to keep plants operational during events like hurricanes and heat waves. But Trump officials have wielded them to put off plant closures for months, citing longer-term constraints on the grid over wide regions of the country. ... Doing so twists the meaning of emergency beyond recognition and illegally intrudes upon states’ control over power generation, the states and environmental groups argue.
{snip}
Michigan fights Trump administration in court over order keeping coal plant online
Updated: May. 15, 2026, 4:00 p.m. | Published: May. 15, 2026, 3:45 p.m.
An aerial image of Consumer Energy’s J.H. Campbell Generating Complex in Ottawa County, Mich. on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. The complex is made up of three units that were built in 1962, 1967 and 1980. It is the last of Consumers' coal-fired plants and is slated to be retired from service by May 31, 2025 as part of the utility's clean energy plan.
Train cars full of coal from Wyoming wait to be unloaded at Consumer Energy’s J.H. Campbell Generating Complex in Ottawa County, Mich. on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. The complex is made up of three units that were built in 1962, 1967 and 1980. It is the last of Consumers' coal-fired plants and is slated to be retired from service by May 31, 2025 as part of the utility's clean energy plan.
By Lucas Smolcic Larson | lsmolciclarson@mlive.com
WASHINGTON - Do Trump administration orders keeping an aging coal power plant on Lake Michigan online represent a lifeline as power-hungry data centers burden the grid? ... Or do they amount to a costly overreach that throws years of careful state planning to the wind in the name of a fabricated emergency?
Those competing narratives clashed in a federal courthouse near the U.S. Capitol Friday, May 15. ... Attorneys representing Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois and nine environmental groups sought to convince a panel of federal appellate judges that Trump officials are illegally forcing the J.H. Campbell plant in Ottawa County to stay open, now almost a year past its intended shutdown date.
{snip}
The arguments mainly hinged on what defines an “emergency” allowing Wright to step in to order plants stay running under a 91-year-old section of the Federal Power Act.
In the past, the powers have generally been used for a few days at a time to keep plants operational during events like hurricanes and heat waves. But Trump officials have wielded them to put off plant closures for months, citing longer-term constraints on the grid over wide regions of the country. ... Doing so twists the meaning of emergency beyond recognition and illegally intrudes upon states’ control over power generation, the states and environmental groups argue.
{snip}
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