Washington seeks rehearing of illegal, inscrutable DOE order on TransAlta coal power

Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown has filed a request for rehearing over the Department of Energy's (DOE) illegal, clumsy emergency order forcing a decommissioned coal power plant back into production despite not having the staff, buyers or coal for such work.

"No presidential administration has abused its emergency powers more than this one, and we see it here as they try to force coal power into the homes of consumers who have moved on," Brown said. "We will take every step necessary to undo this unwanted and unworkable order."

"The Trump Administration is once again ignoring both the law and the facts," Gov. Bob Ferguson said. "The Department of Energy needs to reverse course on this harmful and misinformed order."

The TransAlta power plant in Centralia had all but ceased coal power generation by December 2025 as part of a deal approved by the state Legislature in 2011. That same month, TransAlta announced plans to partner with Puget Sound Energy to convert its last coal power station to a more reliable and efficient energy source to help meet peak power demands.

Under the 2019 Clean Energy Transformation Act, state law also forbids Washington utilities from providing coal power to customers by the end of 2025.

DOE's order last month to keep the plant's last coal-fired power station open in case of an unlikely and hypothetical emergency has thrown chaos and confusion into those plans. Rather than help Washington's power grid, the move would likely drive up energy costs - which are already rising nationally under the Trump administration - and expose Washington communities to more pollution. Coal power is significantly more expensive and twice as polluting as natural gas.

The state's request for a rehearing details the many legal and logistical problems posed by the order, considering that

• DOE's own regulations and prior actions make clear this authority is limited to true emergencies, not imagined ones. The order is a clear attempt by DOE to bypass the limits imposed on it by Congress.
• The federal government has no right to usurp short- and long-term resource planning at the local level. The appropriate state and local regional authorities are already at work to address long-term energy reliability concerns - including the expansion of TransAlta Centralia's production capacity, which this order interferes with.
• The order fails to clearly identify the regulatory agencies that even have authority to direct TransAlta Centralia to generate coal power. The confusion that results highlights the danger of a federal agency forcing power generation and availability decisions that Congress expressly left to the states.
• The administration's order is part of a larger effort to boost the coal industry - which gave millions to the president's political campaign - at the expense of more efficient, cleaner, and cheaper power sources nationally. The inevitable outcome will be increased electricity rates borne by a public already facing an affordability crisis.

The federal government will have 30 days to consider the state's request for a rehearing. If the request is denied, that clears the way for Washington to pursue available remedies in the courts to protect Washington's power grid, energy consumers, and the rule of law.

A copy of the motion for rehearing is available here.

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A copy of the complaint is available here.