The Trump administration has kept a Michigan coal-fired power plant operating nearly a year past its scheduled retirement date to meet rising energy demand, even as lawsuits unfold and critics warn the move could cost ratepayers.
Over the past year, the Department of Energy has been at the forefront of keeping aging coal plants operating to prevent blackouts during peak summer and winter seasons.
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The J.H. Campbell coal-fired plant in Michigan received its fifth emergency order from the DOE earlier this week, requiring it to remain operating far past its retirement date. The DOE directed the region’s grid operator, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, and the plant’s operator, Consumers Energy, to keep the facility open through Aug. 16, 2026. The plant was set to retire almost one year ago, on May 31, 2025.
However, the DOE has argued that its repeated delays in the plant’s retirement provide a “critical” energy source to the region’s grid.
“The energy sources that perform when you need them most are inherently the most valuable—that’s why beautiful, clean coal was the MVP during peak capacity events this past year,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement.
Demand for energy has grown in recent years, partly due to the rapid growth of artificial intelligence, data centers, manufacturing, and increased electrification. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said U.S. electricity demand is forecast to rise 1.3% in 2026, averaging almost 4,250 billion kilowatthours and increasing another 3.1% in 2027.
To address the growing demand, DOE has issued several emergency orders to prevent other coal-fired power plants from retiring. As of January, the DOE said it has prevented more than 17 gigawatts of coal power from going offline. It added that the department had issued 19 emergency orders to prevent facility closures, including the closure of five coal-fired power plants.
The emergency orders align with the Trump administration’s broader effort to prop up the fossil fuel industry while curbing renewable energy development. Wright has criticized the Biden administration’s effort to transition away from coal and gas to green energy. The secretary last year said that about 100 gigawatts of energy capacity was going to go offline under the Biden administration.
However, maintaining operations at the J.H. Campbell power plant and others could be costly. Consumer Energy, in its recent filings, reported $180 million in operational expenses for the plant in Michigan, NewsNation reported. Similarly, the DOE in March ordered TransAlta to continue operating its Unit 2 power plant in Washington past its retirement date until June. NewsNation said TranAlta has spent $20 million in the first three months on operational costs.
The Environmental Defense Fund and other green groups have argued that the additional costs in operations could be passed on to ratepayers.
“It’s been nearly a year since the Trump administration began illegally keeping coal plants open past retirement – and all it’s done is drive up costs,” Ted Kelly, director and lead counsel at EDF, said in a statement earlier this month. “Families are paying higher bills and breathing more toxic pollution from aging, unreliable coal plants that aren’t even running or working half the time.”
A power sector consulting firm, Grid Strategies, released a report last August stating that ratepayer costs could exceed $3 billion annually if the DOE mandates that large, aging fossil fuel power plants remain open through the end of 2028.
Concerns over rising utility costs come as energy prices continue to increase across the country. The Bureau of Labor Statistics earlier this month reported that inflation rose to 3.8% for the year ending in April, while energy prices increased by 17.9% for the year.
Meanwhile, the DOE’s efforts to delay the aging of coal plants from going offline are being challenged in court by the Michigan Attorney General’s office, Earthjustice, and the Sierra Club.
The lawsuit is being heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The three-judge appellate court heard arguments last Friday, where the plaintiffs claimed that the administration’s orders are unlawful and disregard prior planning and regulatory approvals.
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“Never before this point did the DOE delay the retirement of a power plant absent a request from the operating utility or local governmental body, and only ever in response to concrete, particularized emergencies, and subject to limitations to ensure that the order extends no further than necessary to address the emergency at hand,” the Michigan attorney general’s office said.
The three-judge panel did not immediately issue a ruling.
