Groups Challenge the Trump Administration’s Illegal Emergency Order for Eddystone Plant in Court

(HARRISBURG, PA – Sept 29, 2025) Public interest groups took two actions to protect consumers from illegal actions by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to stall the retirement of two units at the Eddystone Generating Station in Pennsylvania. On Friday, the groups filed a petition for review in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to challenge the DOE’s first order in May. The groups also filed a request for rehearing of the DOE’s order extending the forced operation of the Eddystone plant by another 90 days, which the DOE did in late August.

For their first action, NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), PennFuture, the Clean Air Task Force, the Environmental Defense Fund, and Sierra Club asked the D.C. Circuit to set aside the DOE’s illegal initial order and prevent consumers from having to pay any further costs for the plant’s unnecessary operation. And for their second action, Public Citizen joined the organizations in signing the request for rehearing to the DOE on the extended order. The DOE has 30 days to respond to Friday’s request for rehearing, after which the organizations can also challenge that order in court. 

The DOE falsely invoked emergency powers from section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act twice, which was designed to empower the federal government to direct power plants to operate in wartime or in response to one-off, imminent emergency events, such as hurricanes. The DOE’s orders upend the legal and regulatory decision-making processes that protect consumers from being forced to pay excessive costs for outdated and unnecessary energy generation.

Retiring the Eddystone plant has been planned for nearly two years because it is no longer economical to operate and the region has more-than-adequate generation resources. Constellation Energy, the owner of Eddystone Generating Station, submitted a deactivation notice in December 2023. A recent report refutes the basis of the DOE’s emergency orders and shows that electricity supply is expected to keep pace with growing demand, but the DOE underestimates the addition of new electricity supply and overestimates retirements in its Resource Adequacy Report. The DOE will not provide any federal funding to keep Eddystone running, and its customers will pay the costs to keep it online.

The following are quotes from organizations involved:

“There is no energy ‘emergency’ that calls for the federal government to mandate the continued operation of this inefficient, uneconomic plant. Rather, the DOE’s order continues the ruse to prop up fossil fuels while delaying clean energy. The DOE’s illegal overreach will not support grid reliability, but it will hurt consumers who will now have to cover the costs of this unlawful and unnecessary order,” said Caroline Reiser, Senior Attorney for Climate & Energy at NRDC. “Pennsylvania must make room for clean, reliable, affordable energy on the grid rather than attempting to maintain old, unreliable, dirty power plants.”

“This mandate is a total rip-off. Pennsylvanians are being forced to pay for an old, dirty plant that’s no longer needed,” said Ted Kelly, Director and Lead Counsel for Clean Energy at Environmental Defense Fund. “The plant had been scheduled to close for a reason. It’s not competitive, and Pennsylvania has ample clean energy supply to reliably replace it. Instead, the Department of Energy is forcing households to endure higher bills and more asthma-causing pollution just to keep the plant on life support. The Trump administration’s energy emergency orders are illegal and unnecessary, and we will continue to challenge them in court.”