Overview:

  • Federal emergency orders have kept Michigan's J.H. Campbell coal plant operating past its planned retirement, costing ratepayers $180 million through March.
  • Short-term, 90-day extensions prevent the plant from securing cheaper long-term coal contracts, while Consumers Energy previously said retiring it would save customers $600 million by 2040.
  • Michigan's attorney general is challenging the emergency order in court, calling it a fabricated crisis that undermines cleaner, cheaper energy sources.

The Trump administration’s multiple emergency orders to keep Michigan’s J.H. Campbell coal plant open have cost ratepayers $180 million so far, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said this week.

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Why it matters

Ratepayers are footing a $180-million bill to keep an aging coal plant running that causes an estimated 66 deaths per year and nearly $1 billion in health impacts.

Who's making public decisions

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will decide whether to approve Consumers Energy’s request to recover costs from utility customers across the Midwest, while the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit hears Michigan’s legal challenge to the emergency order.

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What to watch for next

Watch for FERC’s decision on whether customers from across the Midwest grid will help cover the costs of keeping the Campbell plant open, and for another possible 90-day extension from the Department of Energy.

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“These consecutive 90-day extensions keeping this carcass of a coal plant operational is like something out of ‘Weekend at Bernie’s,’” Nessel said during a Thursday webinar hosted by the Great Lakes Business Network. 

The short-term orders mean the plant is unable to enter into less expensive long-term contracts for purchasing coal, she said.

In the 1989 film “Weekend At Bernie’s,” salesmen who are on a weekend vacation at their boss Bernie’s beach house keep up a charade by pretending he’s alive after discovering his dead body. 

Keeping the aging coal plant online is costing far more than it would ever recoup in profit, Nessel said.  

Consumers Energy, which operates the J.H. Campbell Complex near Lake Michigan, said in 2022 that retiring the plant and bringing solar energy and battery storage online would save its customers $600 million by 2040.

It cost Consumers $180 million to keep the plant online through March, the utility said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright cited an energy “emergency” in his original May 23, 2025 order to keep the Campbell plant open. It had been set to retire May 31, 2025.

The most recent 90-day extension of this order became effective on Feb. 17, extending until May 18.

“The Trump administration is crying wolf over a nonexistent energy emergency, while undermining every effort made to increase the efficiency, affordability and the reliability of domestic energy markets,” Nessel said Thursday.

The real energy emergency is the one the Trump administration has created by undermining cheaper and cleaner energy sources, she said.

Nessel’s office is challenging the administration’s emergency order to keep the Campbell plant open in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.

Consumers is seeking approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to recover the costs of operating the Campbell plant from utility customers across the Midwest electric grid.

The utility is awaiting a decision from FERC on its request to recover costs from the first 90 days after the original emergency order, said Consumers spokesperson Brian Wheeler.

A Department of Energy spokesperson told Planet Detroit in a statement that emergency orders to keep coal plants open “prevented blackouts and likely saved hundreds of lives during peak capacity events this past year.”

During Winter Storm Fern, which impacted much of the country in late January, coal generation increased by 25% compared to the same time last year, the Energy Department spokesperson said.

According to the nonprofit Clean Air Task force, pollution from the Campbell plant causes an estimated 66 deaths per year and nearly $1 billion in health impacts.

The group uses the EPA’s CO-Benefits Risk Assessment screening model to calculate its mortality estimates. 

Solar rollbacks add to pain, AG says

Nessel touted her office’s efforts to fight federal rollbacks during Thursday’s webinar. Her office blocked the Energy Department’s attempt to place a cap on reimbursements for state-run home weatherization programs and worked to restore grants for electric vehicle charging stations and necessary approvals for wind energy projects.

Nessel criticized the Environmental Protection Agency’s suspension of the Solar for All program, which she said would have helped around 16,300 households reduce their energy bills by roughly $400 annually over the next 25 years. Michigan was set to receive $156 million through the program.

“If the federal government genuinely cared, if they really wanted to accelerate the production of domestic energy, they wouldn’t be fighting tooth and nail to eliminate programs like Solar for All,” Nessel said.

 An EPA spokesperson said that Nessel and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer supported the Biden administration’s efforts to “shutter reliable baseload power plants and replace them with unreliable and costly renewable energy.”

According to Lazard, a financial advisory and asset management firm, the lifetime costs of wind and utility solar in the U.S. are cheaper than any other generation source. 

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Brian Allnutt is a senior reporter and contributing editor at Planet Detroit. He covers the climate crisis, environmental justice, politics and open space.