Trump Administration Orders to Keep Fossil-Fired Power Plant Running Will Increase Michigan Electricity Costs
LANSING, MI - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued an emergency federal order, again, late on August 20, requiring the J.H. Campbell coal plant to remain operational, despite plans to close the facility by May 31, 2025. An independent report found that keeping fossil-fired power plants, like J. H. Campbell, running could cost consumers $3 to $6 billion a year.
Following is reaction from Derrell Slaughter, Michigan policy director, Climate & Energy, at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):
“Forcing utilities to continue to operate unneeded and costly coal-fired power plants past their retirement increases the electric bills paid by homeowners and businesses while missing an opportunity to cut dangerous air pollution.
“People in Michigan and across the Midwest should not be stuck paying the cost of a nonexistent ‘emergency’ with their health and their electric bills. These moves by the Trump administration are a political takeover of the electricity grid, granting the Secretary of Energy the authority to override markets, states, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation to bolster uneconomic and polluting fossil fuels.”
Background:
On May 23, 2025, the DOE issued an emergency order forcing the J.H. Campbell power plant to remain operational past its long-planned May 31 expiration date. The order falsely invokes emergency powers to upend the usual legal and regulatory decision-making process. Nine public advocacy groups, including NRDC, led by the Sierra Club and Earthjustice filed a petition for review at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in response to the DOE's unlawful and unreasonable extension of the J.H. Campbell coal plant, and the department’s failure to respond to the groups’ earlier request for rehearing on the department’s emergency order.
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).