Trump is forcing this dirty, costly coal plant to stay open

Washington Post

4 days ago

An emergency order last month from Washington rattled Michigan regulators: The Trump administration reversed the state's plan to retire an aging power plant, forcing it to remain open and continue burning coal.
Michigan and the plant's operator have mounds of evidence that closing the 63-year-old J.H. Campbell plant on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan won't create a shortage of electricity. But the Trump administration adopted a different view, claiming the Midwest is overly dependent on intermittent wind and solar power. Energy Secretary Chris Wright exercised rarely used federal authority to block the closure, which had been scheduled for May 31. His order requires the plant to continue operating for three more months — and possibly longer.
The move will collectively increase electric bills for ratepayers in the Midwest by tens of millions of dollars, according to Michigan officials. More broadly, it was seen as an opening salvo in President Donald Trump's effort to reverse America's transition to clean energy and restore the nation's dependence on burning fossil fuels. The administration's strategy includes using federal power to overturn the plans of local utilities and regulators.
'It came as a surprise to everybody, and it was baffling why they chose this plant,' said Dan Scripps, chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities. 'Nobody asked for this order. The power grid operator did not. The utility that owns the plant did not. The state regulator did not.'
Trump attempted to unravel state-level zero-emissions goals in his first term with little to show for it. This time around, his strategy, guided in part by Project 2025, is more far-reaching, based on federal mandates and an expansive vision for what types of energy should be prioritized on regional electrical grids.
The White House claims that the intermittent nature of solar and wind generation will lead to energy shortages and fail to meet the surging electricity demands of artificial intelligence.
Experts said they could not recall another case in history where an administration unilaterally ordered the extension of a power plant's service without being asked by the owner or state officials.
The administration has already laid the groundwork for the Michigan order to be followed by other such emergency orders in other states in the coming months. Late on Friday, Wright used the authority to halt the long-planned retirement of the Eddystone Generating Station near Philadelphia, a 1960s-era power plant that burns gas and fuel oil. Trump allies in individual state legislatures, meanwhile, are introducing local laws that would prioritize electricity from fossil fuels on power grids.
'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 Energy Department said a statement to The Washington Post.
The administration's view that renewable energy destabilizes energy supplies is disputed by many experts, who say batteries and enhanced distribution systems allow power grids to thrive on wind and solar energy.
'The view that we need to prioritize these traditional resources is stuck in the past,' said Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School. 'The cost of falling back on this kind of techno-pessimism is you lose momentum to build a more modern grid. Instead, you are doubling down on plants that need to be replaced because they are dirty and expensive.'
Michigan's Campbell plant, according to the Sierra Club, is the largest source of greenhouse gas and local air pollution in western Michigan. It opened in 1962 and at one point was planned to run until as late as 2040. But plant owner Consumers Energy opted to close it this year as part of a 2022 settlement with the community and its broader plan to transition off coal altogether. Scripps said economics were a major driver in the early retirement, as the utility can generate energy more cheaply from gas, wind and solar.
Wright's emergency order keeps the plant open three months, the maximum amount of time the law allows. But he has the option of issuing new three-month orders each time one expires. Some lawmakers in Michigan are expecting exactly that. Trump, in an April executive action, directed Wright to issue such orders or take any other action necessary to keep open many large fossil plants scheduled for closure if the energy they generate is being replaced by wind or solar power.
Some local lawmakers are supporters of the federal intervention. 'I hope it stays open for more than just a few months,' Republican Michigan state Rep. Luke Meerman said of the Campbell plant. He signed an April 30 letter with colleagues urging the administration to keep it open. 'Given it has a lifespan out to 2040, it seems premature and a waste of resources to shut it down.'
The interventions in local power supplies dovetail with other steps. The administration aims to largely eliminate climate change as a consideration in any power grid planning, potentially resulting in the release of massive amounts of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. The Energy Department also has taken control from independent regulators and grid operators the job of drafting of certain power grid supply rules. The White House has ordered the department to develop new formulas that could bump wind and solar projects to the back of the line.
'Technologies like battery energy storage that enhance grid operations but do not fit into that myopic definition of reliability likely won't get the same access,' said Aaron Zubaty, CEO of Eolian, a large clean energy developer.
Declaring state and municipal clean energy goals 'burdensome and ideologically motivated' in an April order, Trump directed the Justice Department to lay the groundwork for legal action against as many as 25 states that have adopted them.
'There has been this bias for years against fossil energy that has gotten us into a dangerous situation with a weakened grid,' said Diana Furchtgott‑Roth, director of the Center for Energy, Climate and Environment at the conservative Heritage Foundation 'It needs to be rectified.'
The administration plans for reshaping how the United States generates electricity mirrors elements of the Heritage-led Project 2025 blueprint for remaking government. Project 2025 includes detailed plans for invoking emergency powers to reorient the electricity system toward fossil fuels and usurping authority from grid operators and state regulators, whose job it is to avoid blackouts and spikes in prices.
The policies are driven by a conservative backlash against Obama- and Biden-era rules that conservatives argue distorted free markets at the expense of fossil fuels, said Brent Bennett, director of the energy policy team at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank aligned with Trump. 'It's kind of become an ideological battle,' he said.
That battle is also playing out on the state level in places such as Nebraska, which passed a law last year requiring that any gas, coal or nuclear power plant that is retired be replaced by plants that can provide an equal amount of around-the-clock electricity. Utah and Wyoming also passed laws in 2024 that aggressively prioritize such 'dispatchable' electricity over intermittent sources like wind and solar.
Texas is requiring that all new wind and solar connected to the power grid starting in 2027 be paired with other resources that can backstop it. A measure that would prohibit developers from using battery storage systems as the backup passed the state Senate this year.
The administration justified the Campbell plant order by pointing to a report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or NERC, a quasi-government agency focused on keeping the power grid from buckling, that warns the Midwest is facing a power crunch this summer. NERC officials said they welcomed the administration's move.
But back in Michigan, regulators warn it will merely raise bills without making the system any more stable. Consumers Energy said in an email to The Post that it will comply with the administration's order and it can secure the coal needed to keep the plant operational. But that could prove a challenge amid reports that contracts for coal and the railcars to the plant have expired. Regulators say several employees who run the plant have already moved on to jobs elsewhere or opted for early retirement packages.
'This is just bad policy,' said Howard Learner, CEO of the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center. 'It is moving us backward by imposing what may be significant costs on ratepayers to run a coal plant which is no longer economic and regulators have found is not necessary.'