Court rules that Trump can’t force a Michigan coal plant to keep running

A federal court has ruled that the Department of Energy acted outside the bounds of its legal authority when it forced a coal plant in Michigan to keep running last year — a decision that could undermine the Trump administration’s push to prevent aging and costly fossil-fueled power plants from closing down.

Under President Donald Trump, the DOE has now used emergency powers granted by Section 202(c) of the 1935 Federal Power Act to force seven fossil-fuel power plants to stay open even though utilities and state regulators have decided it’s prudent and safe to shut them down. It’s a break with the historic use of the powers, which are meant to help the agency manage acute grid emergencies.

In May 2025, the DOE issued its first such emergency order, directing the J.H. Campbell power plant in Michigan to keep operating just days before its planned closure. The agency has since issued six more directives to keep the plant online, as each emergency order lasts only 90 days.

In a unanimous decision on Friday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld a challenge from attorneys general representing the states of Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois and environmental groups against the DOE’s first emergency order to the J.H. Campbell plant.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright has argued that the DOE is justified in halting long-planned power plant retirements to prevent grid reliability emergencies. In a May hearing before the three-judge panel, Robert Stander, deputy assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice, argued the DOE had ​“sole discretion” over how to use that power.

Energy experts have disputed Wright’s characterization that there is any grid emergency — and the facts on the ground in Michigan bear that out. The plan to retire the J.H. Campbell plant was first launched in 2021 as part of a broader effort to secure lower-cost replacement resources to meet the state’s clean power mandate and was expected to save customers $600 million through 2040. The closure was approved by utilities, regulators, and the regional grid operator.

The D.C. Circuit, for its part, was ​“unpersuaded by DOE’s sweeping conception of its ​‘emergency’ authority.” It also found that “[t]here is no dispute that for almost a century states have exercised authority, preserved by the Federal Power Act, to regulate in-state power plants for the economic and environmental benefit of their citizens.”

“What the court said is that DOE grossly overstepped its authority,” said Michael Lenoff, a senior attorney at nonprofit law firm Earthjustice, one of several environmental groups challenging the must-run order. ​“Next, DOE should follow the law and rescind its current Capmbell order and allow the plant to retire — and it should follow the law in all its usages of emergency authority.”

Friday’s court decision addresses only the May 2025 DOE order issued to keep the J.H. Campbell plant running, not the subsequent orders. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said the order had cost customers of the plant’s owner, the utility Consumers Energy, $180 million through March of this year.

The DOE has also issued similar must-run orders to coal plants in Colorado, Florida, Indiana, and Washington state and to an oil and gas-burning plant in Pennsylvania, all of which were on the verge of closing before the DOE intervened. The Sierra Club has estimated the total cost of the DOE’s must-run orders has risen to nearly $550 million dollars to date.

The DOE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The agency could ask the full D.C. Circuit Court to rehear the case or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Sanjay Narayan, the Sierra Club’s chief appellate counsel.

Legal challenges have been brought against the DOE for each of the other power plants it has forced to stay running past retirement, Narayan said. Friday’s decision lends weight to these other efforts, he said.

“All of these plants are different,” he said. But in each case, ​“there is no shortage that the states aren’t prepared to address.”

“That’s why these coal plants were being shut down — it saves money, and saves kids trips to the emergency room for asthma,” he said. The DOE’s must-run orders ​“represent an effort to force particular sources of high-polluting, expensive energy down the public’s collective throat.”