Trump administration illegally extends costly Michigan coal plant over a year past its planned retirement

(WASHINGTON – May 18, 2026) Today, the Trump administration issued a fifth 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 August 18, 2026. This brings the total extension to over a year – 444 days – from when the plant was supposed to retire in May 2025.

Recent filings from Consumers Energy, the plant’s owner, show that consumers will be on the hook for $180 million in additional costs – around $600,000 a day – as a result of the Trump administration’s mandates. Consumers Energy is seeking to recover these ballooning costs – which cover the plant’s operations as of March 31, 2026 – from ratepayers in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

“For almost a year now, Midwestern families and businesses have been left footing the bill for a costly, polluting coal plant they don’t need and they can’t afford,” said Ted Kelly, Director and Lead Counsel, U.S. Clean Energy at Environmental Defense Fund.

Last Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard a challenge to Campbell’s extension brought by Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois, alongside Environmental Defense Fund and eight other public interest groups. The public interest groups argued that the Department is misusing its emergency powers in the absence of any actual emergency to replace years of careful planning from the state, grid operator and utility. They also argue that DOE’s order ignored key constraints on its emergency powers, including requirements to demonstrate that the order is the “best” way to meet the emergency, as well as limiting hours of operations to the minimum needed to address the emergency.

“Abusing emergency powers in this way sets a terrible precedent for grid planning. Michigan, the utility and the grid operator agreed on a plan to replace Campbell with cheaper, cleaner and more reliable energy sources – a plan that would lower electricity costs at a time when families are feeling the strain. Instead, the Department of Energy is throwing all those years of state and local planning out the window, forcing people to pay the price of costly coal power indefinitely,” Kelly said.

The Court’s decision may have implications far beyond Campbell. In total, the Trump administration has extended five coal plants in Michigan, Indiana, Colorado and Washington past their retirement dates, as well as a gas and oil plant in Pennsylvania. 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.

An independent report from Grid Strategies found that if the Trump administration issues more mandates to keep aging coal power plants online, it could cost U.S. electricity consumers as much as $6 billion per year.