In a defeat for the Trump administration, a federal court on Friday ruled that the Energy Department exceeded its authority when it forced a Michigan coal-fired power to stay open past its scheduled retirement date last year. Energy Secretary Chris Wright had said the 64-year-old J.H. Campbell Generating Plant was needed to ensure reliable electricity in the region, and he used emergency powers to keep it operating, the AP reports. Environmental groups and three states—Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota—went to court to try to overturn orders keeping the plant online.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided with the states and the groups, saying there was no real emergency under the law. The section of the Federal Power Act that allows emergency orders "is essentially a narrow, last-resort backstop," Judge Cornelia Pillard wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel. By reversing the Campbell plant's "long and carefully planned retirement ... the results are disruptive," Pillard wrote. The Michigan case is one of several legal disputes that have emerged across the country as the Trump administration uses emergency powers to keep a half-dozen coal-fired plants from closing.
The orders, which also apply to plants in Indiana, Colorado, Florida, and Washington state, are raising ratepayer bills and adding air and water pollution that could have been avoided, opponents say. An oil and gas plant in Pennsylvania was also ordered to keep its turbines running as a hedge against electricity shortages in the mid-Atlantic grid. Keeping the Michigan plant open beyond its May 2025 retirement has cost about $259 million so far, according to new financial filings. Those losses will likely be paid by families and businesses in the Midwest, opponents of the order say.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
