Trump Extension of Old Coal Plant Stirs Debate Over ‘Emergency’ Move

(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration’s emergency order last week to extend the life of an aging coal plant that faced permanent closure this weekend is baffling experts and enraging clean-power advocates.

The decree thrust the J.H. Campbell power plant on the shores of Lake Michigan to the fore of President Donald Trump’s push to revive the country’s struggling coal industry. Conservative lawmakers who called for the extension hailed the move as a way to help a Midwest electric system facing occasional stress — and to counteract a years-long shift away from the dirtiest fossil fuel. The regional grid’s operator, however, said it did not ask for the action to be taken, raising questions on why it was deemed to be so urgent by the Trump administration.

“This is a fake emergency,” says Tyson Slocum, an energy expert with watchdog group Public Citizen, which plans to challenge the order. “This is a political abuse of statutory emergency powers.”

The Campbell plant in West Olive, which first went into service in 1962, has three units with a total of 1.45 gigawatts of capacity. Majority owner Consumers Energy announced plans in 2021 to shut the facility and stop burning coal by this year. The official shutdown date is May 31, but US Energy Secretary Chris Wright upended that plan with an announcement late on May 23, a Friday leading into a three-day holiday weekend.

“I hereby determine that an emergency exists in portions of the Midwest region of the United States due to a shortage of electric energy, a shortage of facilities for the generation of electric energy, and other causes,” he wrote in an emergency order.

The decree came as the central US power grid operated by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator heads into summer at an elevated risk of energy shortages during heat waves and other extreme events. Demand for power has been climbing, and stress in the MISO system has building, especially in the Midwest, as utilities shut down coal and natural gas plants to rely more heavily on intermittent wind and solar.

The Energy Department determined that the immediate fix for the crisis was demanding that the Campbell plant stay in service for an additional 90 days, using authority granted by the Federal Power Act.

“Under President Trump, the DOE and Secretary Wright are ensuring Americans have access to all forms of reliable energy, including coal,” a Department of Energy spokesperson said. “For years, American grid operators have warned decommissioning baseload power sources such as coal plants would jeopardize the reliability of our grid systems, including MISO, which has raised alarm bells. This administration is committed to ensuring Americans have access to reliable, affordable, and secure energy that isn’t dependent on whether the sun shines or the wind blows.”

The CEO of MISO, John Bear, has previously outlined the challenges decarbonization poses to electric reliability. Yet the grid operator and some Michigan authorities seem to dispute whether the extension was essential right now. “MISO did not request the delay but we will coordinate with Consumers Energy to support compliance with the federal order as we prepare to maintain grid reliability throughout the summer season,” said Brandon Morris, a spokesman for the grid operator. “As you know, our recent planning resource auction demonstrated sufficient capacity for the upcoming year.”

No emergency exists, either in Michigan or MISO, according to Dan Scripps, chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission. “We currently produce more energy in Michigan than needed,” Scripps said in a statement. “The unnecessary recent order from the US Department of Energy will increase the cost of power for homes and businesses in Michigan and across the Midwest.”

The decree was also unusual because the Department of Energy was acting without a formal application for an emergency order,  according to Ari Peskoe, director of Harvard Law School’s electricity law initiative.

Typically, “DOE is not looking for emergencies, it is acting on a request,” Peskoe said.

Reviving coal has become a personal issue for Trump, and the order creates the possibility of others being kept alive by decree, said Slocum. “He wants to be the president who saved coal fired power plants,” he said. “This is a political operation.”

The Trump administration made the move to keep the Michigan plant alive as it and Republicans in the House of Representatives have pursued policies that risk weakening renewables — power sources that can often be added to grids faster than new gas-fired plants. Clean power also plays a crucial role in mitigating climate change, which is fueling heat waves that place increasing energy demands on grids. 

The Energy Department order was preceded by an April 30 letter from seven Michigan state Republican lawmakers warning Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum that “we have tremendous concern that Michigan’s energy reliability and security will be irreparably weakened” as power providers shutter coal and gas plants.

The energy landscape has shifted in the years since Consumers Energy said it would close Campbell, said Roger Victory, the Republican state senator who represents the plant’s west Michigan location, and one of the lawmakers who signed the letter. Demand for electricity is climbing, driven by factories and data centers that need reliable power around the clock. That makes facilities like Campbell more important, and shutting them is taxing the grid, raising the risk of power shortages.

“Think of the cost of blackouts,” Victory said in an interview.

In fact, that just happened in Louisiana, where tens of thousands of customers in New Orleans and other parts of the state lost power over Memorial Day weekend. MISO ordered local utility Entergy Corp. to curtail power as high temperatures led to higher-than-expected demand.

Still, keeping the Campbell plant in service may not be that easy, said Greg VanWoerkom, a Michigan state representative who represents the area. Consumers Energy has been planning the shutdown for years. The company has deferred some maintenance, it’s made plans to shift workers to other facilities and shipments of coal have ceased. And while he would be happy to see all those power-plant jobs remain in his district, it may not be practical.

VanWoerkom, a Republican, was aware of the letter his colleagues sent to Washington, but declined to sign it.

“I would love for it to stay open, but it’s a little late in the process,” he said in an interview. “It would require a lot of capital investment to get it to the shape it needs to be.”

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.