Federal court rejects Trump administration mandates extending aging, expensive coal plants past retirement

(WASHINGTON - September 11, 2026) Today, a federal appellate court issued a forceful rejection of the Trump administration's abuse of emergency powers to force an aging, uneconomic Michigan coal plant to remain open long past its scheduled retirement, challenging the justification for other orders that the Department of Energy has issued to aging and unreliable fossil fuel-fired power plants in six states. These orders have cost hundreds of millions of dollars, with the potential to increase electricity bills in more than a dozen states, and have resulted in the release of thousands of tons of harmful air pollution that cause asthma, premature deaths and other serious health impacts.

"The court rejected the Trump administration's nationwide push forcing unreliable, aging coal plants that are bleeding money and polluting communities to stay online," said Ted Kelly, Director and Lead Counsel for U.S. Clean Energy at Environmental Defense Fund.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the Department of Energy's order extending the life of the J.H. Campbell coal plant - which has been forced to run for well over year past its planned retirement - was unlawful and there was "no emergency" that justified keeping it online. The judges explained that the mandate was clearly inconsistent with text of the Federal Power Act and the balance of federal and state authority established by the law. It is also inconsistent with the Department's own regulation and all past uses of the emergency power. The court emphasized that the Department's authority is a narrow but important power to address imminent situations that other regulators cannot effectively address. The challenge was brought by Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois, alongside EDF and eight other public interest groups.

"The Department of Energy's unlawful actions attempted to make families and businesses in the Midwest wastefully pay hundreds of millions of dollars for a coal plant that should have been shut down over a year ago," said Kelly. "That's why these aging coal plants are scheduled to retire in the first place - they are incredibly expensive, dangerous to our health and break down frequently."

The more than 60-year-old J.H. Campbell coal plant was scheduled to retire May 31, 2025, as part of a plan approved by state regulators to replace the plant with cleaner and cheaper energy resources. DOE upended these plans last May by issuing a last-minute emergency order to keep the plant running for 90 days past the retirement date - and then re-extending the order five times, bringing the total extension to well over a year.

Campbell and other forced-open plants are costing families hundreds of millions:

Financial filings from the plant's owner, Consumers Energy, show that consumers will be on the hook for $259 million in additional costs (and counting) as a result of the Trump administration's mandates to continue operating the coal plant. Consumers Energy is seeking to recover these ballooning costs - which cover the plant's operations as of June 30, 2026 - from ratepayers in 11 states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

The plant has taken a heavy toll on surrounding communities' health, including more than 400 asthma attacks from the plant's pollution and 10,000 lbs of toxic metals released into Lake Michigan every year.

Campbell is one of seven fossil fuel-fired plants that has been mandated to stay open past retirement by the Trump administration, despite the enormous costs and pollution harms that fall onto families and businesses from keeping these plants online.

Collectively, the forced operation of these plants amounts to over $500 million.

Families are paying for aging plants that often fail - or sit idle

Many of the extended coal plants have ended up failing or have not been running at all, undermining the Department of Energy's claim that they are "essential" to reliability. In June 2025, Campbell partially failed during the very period DOE claimed it was critical. The Midwest grid had more than enough power during this period - 10 times the power of Campbell, according to the grid operator's data (page 3).

Coal plants break down more than any other type of electricity in the United States according todata from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation - largely due to age-related wear that makes them harder to operate reliably.