Latest news with #energyemergency
E&E News
5 days ago
- Politics
- E&E News
Trump's Michigan coal order draws legal challenge
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and a coalition of environmental groups are calling on a federal appeals court to intervene in the Trump administration's first national order to keep an aging coal plant online, a move they argue is illegal and costly. Nessel (D) on Thursday filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit asking the court to review the Energy Department's order for Consumers Energy to continue operating its J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant in southwestern Michigan. The Sierra Club, Earthjustice and seven other groups also filed a petition with the same court Thursday. The requests target an order that Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued May using emergency authorities in the Federal Power Act to force the plant to keep operating. Wright argued that the plant is needed to keep sufficient electricity on the grid. The local utility Consumers Energy planned to shut down the plant at the end of May. Advertisement 'President Trump has declared under his authority a national energy emergency. The Energy Department and Secretary Wright are ensuring Americans have access to all forms of reliable energy,' said Ben Dietderich, a spokesperson for DOE.
Fast Company
21-07-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
The Trump administration is pushing to open new coal mines that will likely never turn a profit
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist's weekly newsletter here. It looked for a while like the coal mining era was over in the Clearfork Valley of East Tennessee, a pocket of mountainous land on the Kentucky border. A permit for a new mine hasn't been issued since 2020, and the last mine in the region shuttered two years ago. One company after another has filed for bankruptcy, with many of them simply walking away from the ecological damage they'd wrought without remediating the land as the law requires. But there's going to be a new mine in East Tennessee—one of a few slated across the country, their permits expedited by President Donald Trump's declaration of an 'energy emergency' and his designating coal a critical mineral. Trump was only hours into his second term when he signed an executive order declaring a national energy emergency that directed federal agencies to 'identify and exercise any lawful emergency authorities available to them' to identify and exploit domestic energy resources. The administration also has scrapped Biden-era rules that made it easier to bring mining-related complaints to the federal government. The emergency designation compresses the typically years-long environmental review required for a new mine to just weeks. These assessments are to be compiled within 14 days of receiving a permit application, limiting comment periods to 10 days. The process of compiling an environmental impact statement—a time-intensive procedure involving scientists from many disciplines and assessments of wildlife populations, water quality, and other factors—is reduced to less than a month. The government insists this eliminates burdensome red tape. 'We're not just issuing permits—we're supporting communities, securing supply chains for critical industries, and making sure the U.S. stays competitive in a changing global energy landscape,' Adam Suess, the acting assistant secretary for land and minerals management at the Interior Department, said in a statement. A representative of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement told Grist that community safety is top of mind, pointing to the administration's $725 million investment in abandoned mineland reclamation. The Department of Interior ruled that a new mine slated for Bryson Mountain in Claiborne County, Tennessee, would have 'no significant impact' and approved it. It will provide about two dozen jobs. The strip mine will cover 635 acres of previously mined land that has reverted to forest. Hurricane Creek Mining, LLC plans to pry 1.8 million tons of coal from the earth over 10 years. The Clearfork Valley, which straddles two rural counties and has long struggled economically, bears the scars of more than a century's underground and surface mining. Local residents and scientists regularly test the creeks for signs of bright-orange mine drainage and other toxins. The land is part of a tract the Nature Conservancy bought in 2019 for conservation purposes, but because of ownership structures in the coalfields, it owns only the land, not the minerals within it. 'We have concerns about the potential environmental impacts of the operation,' the organization said in a statement. 'We seek assurance that there will be adequate bonding, consistent and transparent environmental monitoring, and good reclamation practices.' Matt Hepler, an environmental scientist with environmental advocacy group Appalachian Voices, has been following the mine's public review process since the company applied for a permit in 2023. He remains skeptical that things will work out well for Hurricane Creek Mining. Despite Trump's promise that he is 'bringing back an industry that's been abandoned,' coal has seen a steady decline, driven in no small part by the plummeting price of natural gas. The number of people working the nation's coal mines has steadily declined from 89,000 or so in 2012 to about 41,300 today. Production fell 31 percent during Trump's first term, and has continued that slide. 'What is this company doing differently that's going to allow them to profitably succeed while so many other mines have not been able to make that work?' he said. 'All the time I've been working in Tennessee there's only been a couple of mines permitted to begin with because production has been on the downswing there,' Hepler added. Economists say opening more mines may not reverse the global downward trend. Plentiful, cheap natural gas, along with increasingly affordable wind and solar, are displacing coal as an energy source. The situation is so dire that one Stanford University study argued that the gas would continue its climb even with the elimination of coal-related regulations. Metallurgical coal, used to make steel—and which Hurricane Creek hopes to excavate —fares no better. It has seen flat or declining demand amid innovation in steel production. Expedited permits are leading to new mines in the West as well. The Department of Interior just approved a land lease for Wyoming's first new coal mine in 50 years. Ramaco Resources will extract and process the material in order to retrieve the rare earth and other critical minerals found alongside it. The Trump administration also is selling coal leases on previously protected federal land. Shiloh Hernandez, a senior attorney at the Northern Rockies office of the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice, thinks it is a fool's errand. 'I don't see them changing the fundamental dynamics of coal,' he said. 'That's not to say that the Trump administration won't cause lots of harm in the process by both making the public pay more money for energy than they should and by keeping some of these coal plants and coal mines that really are zombies.' Still, Hernandez said he isn't seeing many new permits, just quicker approval of those already in the pipeline. That said, the Trump administration's moves to streamline environmental review will reduce oversight and the time the public has to scrutinize coal projects. 'The result is there's just going to be it's going to be more difficult for the public to participate, and more harm is going to occur,' Hernandez said. 'There's going to be less attention to the harm that's caused by these operations.'
Bloomberg
22-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Largest US Grid Issues Energy Emergency Alert for Monday Heat
PJM Interconnection, which serves about 20% of Americans in the mid-Atlantic to the Midwest, declared an energy emergency alert with power demand expected to climb to a 14—year high amid intense heat. This alert was issued in anticipation of tight conditions on the 13-state system as electricity demand is set to top 160 gigawatts on the afternoon of June 23, which would be the highest peak since July 2011, according to PJM. The Eastern US grid operator also called a 'maximum generation emergency' to shore up supplies.
The Guardian
20-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
White House moves to keep costly, dirty, unneeded Michigan coal plants open
The Trump administration is moving to keep open two Michigan coal plants that emit about 45% of the state's greenhouse gas pollution, which opponents say is an indication of how the US president plans to wield his controversial national energy emergency executive order. Already, the US Department of Energy (DoE) has ordered the JH Campbell coal plant on Lake Michigan to remain open beyond its 31 May closure date, while the administration is expected to prolong the life of the Monroe power plant on Lake Erie, currently scheduled to begin closing in 2028. Opponents say the order has little support in Michigan, could cost ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars, and is ideologically driven. The state's utilities have said they did not ask for the plants to stay online, and the Trump administration did not communicate with stakeholders before the order, a spokesperson for the Michigan public service commission (MPSC), which regulates utilities and manages the state's grid, told the Guardian. 'The unnecessary recent order … will increase the cost of power for homes and businesses in Michigan and across the midwest,' the chair of the MPSC, Dan Scripps, said in a statement. 'We currently produce more energy in Michigan than needed. As a result, there is no existing energy emergency in either Michigan or [the regional US grid].' The massive and ageing facilities also release high levels of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter into the air. Meanwhile, their coal ash ponds leach arsenic, lead, lithium, radium and sulfate into local drinking water and the Great Lakes. The Monroe power plant is responsible for more arsenic water pollution than any other power plant in the US. The DoE in a statement told the Guardian the plan was about grid reliability, and added: 'Decommissioning baseload power sources such as coal plants would jeopardize the reliability of our grid systems. '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,' a spokesperson added. However, Consumers Energy said in May said it did not need to keep the coal plant online to meet energy needs. It recently bought a nearby gas plant, and has begun building large-scale renewable installations. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which maintains the regional grid across 15 states, issued a report stating that while there is some risk for power disruption in the summer months, it is low, and 'adequate resources are available to maintain reliability'. That could set the stage for a lawsuit from Michigan's attorney general, Dana Nessel, who said in May she may sue over the order to keep the Campbell plant open, and labeled Trump's energy emergency 'fabricated'. The Campbell plant will initially remain open for 90 days, but the order is expected to be renewed, said Jan O'Connell, senior energy organizer with the Sierra Club Michigan. Michigan's climate law requires 100% clean energy for utilities by 2040. Consumers Energy, which owns the Campbell plant, has since 2021 been planning for the plant's closure as required by the state's energy plan. The company said the Campbell plant's closure would save ratepayers about $600m by 2040. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion The plant largely shut down for several days before reopening at the end of May, O'Connell said. She noted that many of the employees had already found other jobs, and purchasing coal on the spot is far more expensive than purchasing it months ahead of time, as is standard. The administration's order is costly and disruptive, and makes no sense for Consumers Energy or its customers, O'Connell said. 'This is going to cost the ratepayers a lot of money,' she added. The Trump administration's plans are also at odds with market forces, opponents say. Gas and renewables are generally cheaper and cause less pollution. Moreover, the nation's utilities are planning to reduce coal generation by more than 8GW by the end of the year, according to the US Energy Information Administration. O'Connell said it appeared to be an ideological move with no basis in the needs of residents or the energy market. 'This is part of their goal to get rid of renewables and bring back fossil fuels,' she added.
New York Times
06-06-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Coal and Gas Plants Were Closing. Then Trump Ordered Them to Keep Running.
A 63-year-old coal-fired power plant was scheduled to permanently close its doors in Michigan on June 1. So was an oil- and gas-powered plant that was built in the 1960s in Pennsylvania. But at the last minute, the Trump administration ordered both to stay open. The orders came as it pursues a far-reaching plan to boost fossil fuels, including coal, by declaring a national 'energy emergency.' The grid operators in Michigan and Pennsylvania said they hadn't asked for the orders and hadn't planned on using the plants this summer. The costs to keep the plants open, which could total tens of millions of dollars, are expected to fall on consumers. Experts have said there's little evidence of a national energy emergency, and 15 states have sued to challenge President Trump's declaration, which was issued the day he took office. The emergency orders, which came last month, surprised the companies that operate the plants, and they are now scrambling to delay some workers' retirements and reverse nearly complete plans to shutter their facilities. In Michigan, the plant operator raced to buy enough coal to power operations. The episode marks a highly unusual use of the Energy Department's emergency powers under the Federal Power Act. In the past, the department has typically issued emergency orders at the request of regional grid operators to stabilize the power supply during extreme weather events and blackouts. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Note: 'Other' includes batteries, biomass, hydroelectric, solar, waste, and wind. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
