By Kennedy Maize
Offering an implausible rationale, the Trump administration has ordered a private-sector electric utility to delay plans to shut down a large coal-fired power plant in Michigan from the planned closure this Saturday (May 31) until at least August 21.
The order last Friday (May 23) from the Department of Energy bigfoots Michigan-based Consumers Energy, a CMS Energy subsidiary; the Michigan Public Service Commission; and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which operates a 15-state Midwest electric transmission grid. 
The Trump administration order upends a 2022 deal among the utility, the commission, and MISO to retire the 63-year-old, 1,500-MW, three-unit J.H. Campbell plant, the last coal-fired plant in the utility’s system.
In a news release, Energy Secretary Chris Wright hung the administration’s order on the North American Reliability Corp.’s most recent summer reliability assessment that found an “elevated risk” for MISO generating shortages during high demand days. That’s mostly NERC boiler plate that appears in its forecast nearly every summer.
Utility Dive reported, “The NERC assessment found that MISO, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, ISO New England and the Southwest Power Pool were at elevated risks of not having enough power supplies during stressed peak demand periods. No region was at high risk of electricity shortfalls, according to the report.”
MISO has reported that “sufficient resources are available to maintain system reliability for the 2025/2026 delivery year.” Consumers Energy has taken steps since the 2022 announcement of the Campbell closure to replace the coal generation with the purchase of the 1,200-MW gas-fired Covert Generating Station and buying 700 MW of merchant power.
MISO spokesperson Brandon Morris told Canary Media in an email that “MISO will coordinate with Consumers Energy to support compliance with the federal order as we prepare to maintain grid reliability throughout the summer season.”
The state utility regulatory agency immediately slammed the order. “We currently produce more energy in Michigan than needed. As a result, there is no existing energy emergency in either Michigan or MISO,” said Dan Scripps, chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission.
Consumers Energy has reported that it has adequate generation for the summer. A May 12 company news release said, “As temperatures rise and energy demand increases, Consumers Energy is prepared to deliver safe, reliable and affordable power to customers across the region throughout the summer. Our integrated energy strategy—featuring a balanced mix of generation sources, preparation and customer programs—ensures that homes and businesses stay powered during peak demand periods.”
Consumers Energy’s media relations director Katie Carey said the utility intends to comply with the 90-day order, adding, “We are reviewing the executive action and the overall impact on our company”
The utility has neither raised supply issues nor asked FERC or MISO for help in meeting potential summer loads. Utility Dive cited an email from Ari Peskoe, director of Harvard’s Electric Law Initiative. He said that prior to a May 16 emergency order to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and Friday’s Consumers Energy order, “DOE’s practice was not to actively search for emergencies but instead wait for affected parties to request an emergency order. It’s not clear from the order why DOE acted here without a request.”
According to Wright, the Trump administration took the action under the authority of the Federal Power Act and the president’s April 8 energy emergency executive order.
DOE’s action is unneeded and redundant, as Canary Media has pointed out: “MISO has the power to order power plants to stay open if it determines their closure could threaten grid reliability. MISO used that authority most recently during the Biden administration to order Missouri utility Ameren to keep its Rush Island coal plant open. To do so, it filed a ‘reliability must run’ request that was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — the standard practice for such emergency stay-open orders.”
In the order, DOE says, “Following conclusion of this Order, sufficient time for orderly ramp down is permitted, consistent with industry practices. Consumers Energy is directed to comply with all orders from MISO related to the availability and dispatch of the Campbell Plant.”
The last-minute DOE order raises a thicket of legal and financial issues, including impact on consumer rates, recovery of additional costs to Consumers Energy for continuing to run the plant for an additional three months, and the conflicting roles of the DOE and the independent FERC.
Legal disputes are likely. Public Citizen immediately said it will challenge Consumers Energy when it asks FERC for cost recovery caused by the DOE order. The order directed the utility to file at FERC to recoup the costs of the extended operation of the plant. Public Citizen’s Tyson Slocum said “There’s no methodology here. There’s no fact-based assessment. Summer is now an emergency to the Trump administration.” He said the group will challenge the filed rate “as unjust and unreasonable, because the emergency is fake.”
Sierra Club senior attorney Greg Wannier said, “This so-called energy emergency is a sham and we will not stand by and let this administration prop up a dying industry so Trump’s fossil fuel buddies can make more money at the expense of Americans.”
Shannon Fisk of the environmental law firm Earth Justice said, “This last-minute outside interference by the Trump Administration is unnecessary, unreasonable, and would require utility customers to foot the bill for the administration’s ideological agenda.”
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