Federal Court Rejects Emergency Order to Keep Michigan Coal Plant Running
A federal appeals court unanimously vacated the Energy Department's emergency order keeping Michigan's J.H. Campbell coal plant online. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled on Friday, September 11, 2026, that the Department exceeded its authority under federal law Michigan Advance.
Judge Cornelia Pillard wrote the opinion in the case, docketed as No. 25-1159. The court found no emergency that justified continued operation of the 64-year-old plant in West Olive, in west Michigan Al Jazeera.
The plant is operated by Consumers Energy and had been scheduled to close in May 2025. Energy Secretary Chris Wright invoked Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, a provision that lets the federal government order plants to run during power emergencies. He argued continued operation was needed to maintain reliable electricity in the region. The operative directive, Order No. 202-26, directed MISO, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator that manages the grid across much of the Midwest, to keep the Campbell units available for operation. A version of that order took effect August 17, 2026.
The court held that Section 202(c) is a narrow, last-resort backstop. Think of it as an emergency brake, not a steering wheel for long-term planning. It applies only when immediate action is required and states or utilities cannot address the problem themselves. The opinion noted existing state tools, including that Michigan's governor can declare a state energy emergency and order mitigation measures, including restrictions on energy use.
The challenge was brought by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office, joined by counterparts in Illinois and Minnesota. The petitioners argued the Department had stretched emergency powers beyond the statutory test. That test requires a sudden, unforeseen grid shortfall that calls for federal intervention.
The administration has defended the orders as necessary under the national energy emergency declared by President Donald Trump in an executive order in January 2025. That declaration cited demand increases from artificial intelligence and data center growth. The Energy Department said its emergency orders helped prevent blackouts and likely saved hundreds of lives during peak demand in severe winter storms in late January and early February. It said coal generation in affected areas increased by 25 percent compared to the previous year during the winter storm peak.
Continued operation under the federal orders has cost about $259 million, according to financial filings. The Campbell shutdown originally planned for May 31, 2025, would have come 15 years before the end of its scheduled design life, according to Energy Department materials from February.
Hours after the ruling, Wright issued another emergency order for a coal plant in Centralia, Washington, to remain in operation. Similar 202(c) orders have been issued for plants in Indiana, Colorado and Florida, as well as an oil and gas plant in Pennsylvania.
The broader context here is what this ruling means for wider use of Section 202(c). Historically it was used for short, localized interventions, such as hurricane response or acute plant outages. The administration's approach treats expected supply tightness and load growth as an emergency basis for repeated 90-day extensions. That theory is now vulnerable in the circuit that hears most such challenges. For grid planners and state regulators, the question is whether DOE appeals, rewrites its factual findings to meet the immediacy test, or shifts to other authorities to retain dispatchable capacity, meaning power plants that can be turned on when needed. For owners of retiring fossil units, the ruling reduces the likelihood that federal orders will provide sustained revenue beyond planned retirement dates, while leaving open the possibility of narrower orders tied to specific weather events.
