Direct cash transfer from ratepayer’s pockets to EpsteinClass billionaire bank accounts, for this obsolete, unnecessary, polluting coal plant to stay open.
Michigan’s second largest electric utility lost more than $600,000 a day keeping a sprawling coal power plant online months past its intended shutdown date in 2025 under orders from the Trump administration.
Consumers Energy is now seeking approval from federal regulators to pass nearly $42 million in net costs for running the J.H. Campbell plant on Lake Michigan on to utility customers across the Midwest via their power bills.
“We expect costs to operate the Campbell plant will be shared by customers across the Midwest electric grid region – not solely by Consumers Energy customers,” said utility spokesperson Brian Wheeler in a statement, referencing a prior decision from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC.
In total, three emergency orders from President Donald Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright have kept the coal burning at Campbell in Ottawa County for more than eight months after it was slated to go cold and dark.
In 2025, the directives from the feds led Consumers to rack up $290 million in costs at the plant, according to a Feb. 10 regulatory filing, including fuel, employee pay and necessary facility maintenance.
The utility earned $155 million in revenue from producing power at the plant, leaving behind a total of $135 million in net costs that it plans to charge ratepayers in 11 states.