Trump Administration Extends Michigan Coal Plant Fourth Time, as Costs Balloon to Staggering $135 Million

(WASHINGTON – Feb. 18, 2026) The Trump administration issued a fourth illegal emergency order mandating the J.H. Campbell coal plant in Michigan to operate for an additional 90 days past its original planned retirement date, until May 18, 2026. This brings the total extension to almost a year – 360 days – from when the plant was supposed to retire.

In new financial filings, Consumers Energy reported a net loss of $135 million through December 31, 2025 – more than $600,000 a day – for keeping the J.H. Campbell coal plant running past its planned retirement in May 2025. Consumer Energy has already filed to recover roughly $42 million from families and businesses in 11 states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. And that’s just from the first 90-day order – the rest of the financial losses are expected to be passed on to ratepayers in these same states.

“Because of the Trump administration’s illegal mandates, this aging, polluting coal plant is bleeding millions of dollars, and Midwestern families are footing the bill for it,” said Ted Kelly, Director and Lead Counsel, U.S. Clean Energy at Environmental Defense Fund. 

“None of this is necessary. The utility and state officials worked for years to replace the capacity of this more than half-a-century-old coal plant with cheaper, cleaner energy – and made sure that these plans would deliver reliable power. 

“It’s yet another example of the Trump administration putting its thumb on the scale to prop up the coal industry at the expense of people’s health and their hard-earned money.”

The extension comes after the Trump administration announced last week that it was overturning EPA’s landmark determination that climate pollution threatens public health and well-being – an action that will lead to more pollution from fossil fuel plants, higher costs and real harms for American families. Last week, the administration also announced new subsidies to the coal industry and a wasteful deal with the Department of Defense to procure electricity from burning coal.

In total, the Trump administration has extended five coal plants in Michigan, Indiana, Colorado and Washington past their retirement dates. The two extended Indiana coal plants are within the same regional electricity market (known as MISO) as Campbell, so ratepayers in the Midwest will pay for their extensions as well. Keeping those Indiana plants running for 90 days will cost an estimated $21 million.

"Families and businesses in the Midwest are getting a double whammy to their bills from these illegal coal mandates. Not only are they needlessly paying for the Michigan plant, but they must also bear the costs of two old coal plants in Indiana that have been illegally extended,” Kelly said.

Despite claims from the Trump administration that coal is essential for reliability, coal plants break down more than any other type of electricity in the United States, according to data from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).

Many of the coal plants that the Trump administration has illegally forced to stay open have ended up failing:

• One unit of the Craig plant in Colorado was offline last month.
• One Indiana unit has been down since July 2025.
• The J.H. Campbell plant partially failed in June 2025.

Public interest groups, attorneys general — and even utilities themselves — are challenging these illegal emergency orders in court.