Unprecedented policy to “pick losers” and keep an obsolete, uneconomic, coal power plant in service. This will be the template to foist dozens of other equally unnecessary plants on ratepayer’s backs.
Operating any business in 90 day increments is a formula for skyrocketing costs – and much more so in the utility industry, which typically plans and operates in 10, 20 and 30 year time frames. So much for “running government like a business.”
A power plant on the Lake Michigan shoreline will continue burning coal through the winter months as the Trump administration triples down on prolonging its lifespan past its intended retirement date.
Federal officials used emergency powers to issue the third successive order requiring the 63-year-old J.H. Campbell plant in Ottawa County remain open Tuesday evening, Nov. 18, signaling they have no intention to allow utility Consumers Energy let it go cold and dark as planned.
The order lasts 90 days, the maximum time allowable under the law, running through Feb. 17.
The repeated intervention from Washington is unprecedented, attracting criticism from Michigan regulators, consumer watchdogs and environmental groups, as well as ongoing legal challenges.
Opponents claim keeping the plant on life support will only burden utility ratepayers across the Midwest with millions in unnecessary costs, while propping up a polluting means of producing power in decline nationally.
Consumers has disclosed it lost some $615,000 a day running the plant over the summer. It ran up $80 million in net costs in just over four months, after subtracting revenue from the plant. The feds first intervened to prevent its retirement in late May, days before its retirement date, and extended operations with another order in August.
The utility plans to charge those costs to utility customers in 11 states, following a plan approved by federal regulators. It plans to file with regulators later this year to recover net costs from the first 90-day order, according to Consumers spokesperson Brian Wheeler.
resident Donald Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who signed the orders, maintains keeping the plant online is critical to avoiding blackouts as aging coal plants shut down and new demand from projects like massive artificial intelligence data centers and new manufacturing strain the grid.
An “energy emergency” exists in portions of the Midwest, he maintains, mirroring Trump’s declaration of a similar crisis nationwide. Advocates dispute that contention.
In his Tuesday order, Wright cites grid assessments warning of elevated risk of energy shortfalls as older power plants shut down in the region. While summertime currently presents the greatest risk, grid operators have acknowledged the reliability concerns are shifting year-round. This shift is driven by more frequent extreme weather and higher dependence on intermittent renewable sources like wind and solar, according to the order.
“Large amounts of existing generation capacity are projected to be retired each year while, at the same time, the demand for electricity is projected to increase at an accelerating pace,” Wright wrote in the order.
Besides keeping Campbell open, the Trump administration has taken a slew of actions to support coal. They include offering $625 million to upgrade coal power plants, rolling back pollution restrictions and opening millions of acres of federal land for coal mining.
But environmental groups have said Campbell was redundant even during scorching days over the summer, when demand tends to peak.
They cite U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emissions data showing one of the plant’s three units didn’t produce power on a majority of days over a large period of the summer, with others offline roughly a third of the time.
They say this is evidence the plant is unreliable and should be shut down as Consumers planned. Advocates also point to health risks from plant emissions, as coal is considered the dirtiest means of generating power.
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Below, when the first “emergency” order came thru over the summer, officials at the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), as well as utility officials and the Michigan Public Service Commission insisted that the plant was not needed for reliability of the system.
The plant also supplies energy to Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc, or MISO, which operates the electric grid for much of the central U.S. The operator also signed off on the plant’s retirement, determining that it would not violate MISO’s reliability criteria.
Heading into this summer, MISO projected it would have enough energy supply to meet expected consumer demand. While Wright asserts that the grid operator does not have sufficient resources, a MISO spokesperson told the Advance in an email that its 2025-2026 Planning Resource Auction indicated adequate resources to meet anticipated demand.
Wright has justified the move by pointing to Trump’s executive order declaring an energy emergency, however several environmental and energy advocates have dismissed the emergency as a sham.
Dan Scripps, chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission, which regulates energy companies in the state, questioned the decision to extend the operation of the Campbell plant calling it “a justification in search of a problem” and noting both Michigan and its primary electric grid operator have shown they have enough energy to meet demand.
“There is no energy emergency in Michigan or in MISO, and this decision will add even more costs that customers will have to bear,” Scripps said, warning that this system of 90-day extensions would add millions more to customers’ utility bills across the region.
“Put simply, we don’t plan the grid 90 days at a time,” Scripps said.