Federal appeals court blocks Trump administration’s emergency orders keeping coal plants online

A unanimous three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against the Department of Energy’s use of emergency declarations to keep aging coal-fired power plants from closing, in the first judicial test of a policy that has become a centerpiece of the administration’s effort to slow coal’s decline on the US grid.

The case centered on the J.H. Campbell Generating Plant in Michigan, which had been scheduled to shut down last year. The DOE repeatedly invoked section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act to keep the facility running, issuing a series of declarations — five in total — each capped at 90 days under the statute. That provision permits emergency action only during wartime or when a sudden spike in demand or a shortage of electric energy creates a genuine crisis.

The panel concluded that the department’s declarations did not meet those statutory conditions. While the ruling directly applies to a single Michigan plant, its legal reasoning casts doubt on every coal plant retirement the DOE has sought to stall through similar emergency orders.

The decision arrives against a long backdrop of coal’s shrinking role in US electricity generation. Output from coal has fallen steadily for nearly two decades, a trend that persisted through the first Trump administration. In its second term, the administration has pursued more forceful measures, including direct orders requiring plants slated for closure to remain operational — in some cases even where grid operators indicated the capacity was not needed. Several states with plants targeted for closure joined the legal challenge to the emergency declarations.

Legal observers will now look to how the Energy Department responds, given that the appellate reasoning would appear to constrain the tool it has relied on most heavily to extend the operating lives of coal assets.

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Source: original release

What to watch

• Whether the DOE seeks en banc review or appeals the DC Circuit panel’s ruling further
• How the decision affects pending challenges to emergency orders covering other coal plants
• Any new Energy Department actions or alternative legal authorities to prolong coal plant operations
• Scheduled closure dates and compliance filings for plants previously kept open under 202(c)