Nessel pushes back as Trump administration extends order keeping coal plant open

By Elyse Apel
The Center Square

The Trump administration has again extended its emergency order keeping a west Michigan coal plant operating.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued a fifth emergency order earlier this week requiring the J.H. Campbell coal plant in West Olive to remain available through Aug. 16, extending operations more than a year past its original retirement date.

The Campbell plant, which began operating in 1962 and is owned by Consumers Energy, is the utility’s last remaining coal-fired power plant. The facility generates enough electricity to serve roughly 1 million people.

The latest order follows a series of previous 90-day extensions. The Department of Energy has argued the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, faces ongoing resource concerns and risks of electricity shortfalls during periods of high demand or low generation output.

“The continued operation of the Campbell Plant would provide additional generation capacity during these periods, which would help prevent the potential loss of power to homes and local businesses in the areas that might have been affected by curtailments or outages that would otherwise pose a risk to public health and safety,” the latest order stated. “The continued operation of the Campbell Plant was necessary to alleviate immediate and anticipated threats to reliability.”

The Department of Energy said the plant proved critical during recent winter storms and argued shutting it down would worsen grid reliability challenges across the Midwest heading into the summer months.

“The energy sources that perform when you need them most are inherently the most valuable – that’s why beautiful, clean coal was the MVP during peak capacity events this past year,” Wright said in a statement announcing the extension. “Hundreds of American lives have likely been saved because of President Trump’s actions saving America’s coal plants, including this Michigan coal plant which ran daily during Winter Storm Fern. This emergency order will mitigate the risk of blackouts and maintain affordable, reliable, and secure electricity access across the region this summer.”

The latest order directs MISO, in coordination with Consumers Energy, to ensure the plant remains available to operate while minimizing costs.

A July 2025 report from the U.S. Department of Energy argued the U.S. will face a significantly increased risk of power outages by 2030 if scheduled coal and natural gas plant retirements are allowed to proceed, as previously reported by The Center Square.

The report fulfilled a direction by President Donald Trump in an April 2025 executive order to “develop a uniform methodology for analyzing current and anticipated reserve margins for all regions of the bulk power system.”

Last year, Michigan joined a coalition of states challenging that report. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, joined community leaders and environmental advocates in Ottawa County on Thursday to call for the plant’s immediate closure.

“The real energy emergency is the one Trump himself is creating,” Nessel said. “Meanwhile, the JH Campbell coal plant has cost hundreds of millions of dollars to operate – costs Michigan ratepayers will be forced to pay. We will be intervening to stop the most recent extension and will do so as many times as necessary to protect Michigan residents from these unlawful orders.”

Last week, environmental groups and the attorneys general of Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that the DOE is unlawfully using its emergency powers to keep the plant open.

It’s not without increased cost as well.

The Environmental Defense Fund has pointed to recent regulatory filings showing the plant’s continued operation has already added roughly $180 million in costs through March 2026, or more than $600,000 per day. The organization said Consumers Energy is seeking to recover those costs from ratepayers.

“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. “Abusing emergency powers in this way sets a terrible precedent for grid planning . . . 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.”

The Trump administration has issued similar emergency orders extending operations at several other coal plants nationwide, including ones in Indiana, Colorado, and Washington.