A District of Columbia appeals court overturned Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s emergency order preventing a Michigan utility from closing a 64-year-old coal-fired power plant last year as part of an effort to provide enough reliable energy to the region during the winter.
The three-judge panel sided with environmental groups and three states—Michigan, Illinois, and Minnesota—saying the government exceeded its authority and failed to meet the requirements of an emergency when it ordered the J.H. Campbell Generating Plant along the shore of Lake Michigan to remain open.
Pillard said the Federal Power Act that allows emergency orders “is essentially a narrow, last-resort backstop.” Use of the authority “is triggered only when there is a need for immediate, essentially last-resort action and the circumstances require action” by the Department of Energy in particular, she said.
The case was not sent back to a lower court to be reconsidered.
Wright previously said he had the power to keep the aging power plant open under the National Energy Emergency declaration and Trump’s April 2025 executive orders to support the coal industry and strengthen the nation’s electrical grid.
Related Stories
The Michigan order on May 23, 2025, was one of five emergency orders issued by Wright that year under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act. Each order mandated that old coal-fired generators in Michigan, Washington, Indiana, and Colorado remain operating, or operable, instead of shutting down as scheduled.
The mandates prevented the retirement of more than 17 gigawatts of coal-powered generation—enough to power up to 17 million homes, Wright told lawmakers in April.
The renewable energy infrastructure built by the Biden administration and some Democrat-led states was vulnerable to harsh weather, costly, and relied on imported materials, mostly from China, according to Wright.
A Department of Energy spokesperson said the emergency orders, including the one for the Campbell plant, “prevented blackouts and likely saved hundreds of lives during peak capacity events this past year.”
“The Energy Department’s emergency orders were essential for keeping the lights on during Winter Storm Fern,” the spokesperson told The Epoch Times. “At the peak of the storm, coal generation in impacted regions increased 25 [percent] compared to the same time last year.”
An aerial image of Consumer Energy’s J.H. Campbell Generating Complex is seen in Ottawa County, Mich., Sept. 21, 2024. Joel Bissell/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP, File
“Rest assured, the Department of Energy will continue to protect and defend energy security for all Americans,” the spokesperson said.
Michigan’s Democrat Attorney General Dana Nessel applauded the ruling.
United States Energy Secretary Chris Wright speaks with Kiewit Construction Site Manager Marvin Robb (left) and Atlas Engineering Project Manager Hillary Hack during a June 25 tour of Oklo’s Aurora Powerhouse Project at Idaho National Laboratory. John Haughey/The Epoch Times
“By forcing its continued operation, DOE tried a never-before-used tactic to illegally prop up the aging J.H. Campbell coal plant that nobody asked to keep, sticking ratepayers with a bill for a facility that should have been retired more than a year ago,” Nessel said in a statement. “I am relieved that the Court saw through this facade and threw out DOE’s order that had zero basis in reality.”
Earthjustice’s lawyer Michael Lenoff lauded the court’s finding.
“The court rebuked the Trump administration’s abuse of emergency powers,” Lenoff said in a statement. “Preventing the market-driven retirements of coal plants to advance a coal-friendly agenda is not a proper use of emergency powers.”
Michigan passed a law in 2023 that established a renewable energy standard requiring the state’s utilities to be powered by 50 percent clean energy by 2030 and 100 percent by 2040.
John Haughey contributed to this report.
