The Trump administration has lost its legal fight to keep Michigan’s J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant operating after the facility was scheduled for decommissioning and replacement with renewable energy.

In 2024, Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to end what he called Joe Biden’s “war on American energy.” His platform called for restoring fossil-fuel production and reducing environmental regulations. Trump, a longtime critic of wind energy, also promised to lower energy costs while seeking to eliminate renewable-energy policies. His “clean coal” rhetoric presented coal plants as sources of jobs, reliable electricity and U.S. energy dominance.

After taking office, Trump issued an emergency order requiring the J.H. Campbell plant to remain open, despite Congress’ previous authorization for its decommissioning. Michigan and environmental groups challenged the order in court.

On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled for Michigan’s attorney general and overturned the Department of Energy’s order. The decision allows the state’s plan to close the plant to proceed. It leaves Michigan’s previously authorized retirement plan in place, while the same emergency authority remains at issue in disputes involving other coal-fired plants.

The Pennsylvania State University Institute of Energy and the Environment reported last year that, even with Trump’s support for keeping coal plants operating, coal-generated energy remained two to three times more expensive than alternatives. Its analysis is available here.

Appeals Court Judge Cornelia Pillard wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel that the DOE’s reliance on the emergency provision of the Federal Power Act “is essentially a narrow, last-resort backstop mechanism empowering DOE to address certain electricity supply emergencies.”

Pillard explained that the provision allows the secretary of energy to compel electricity generation only “[d]uring the continuance of any war in which the United States is engaged” or when the secretary “determines that an emergency exists by reason of a sudden increase in the demand for electric energy, or a shortage of electric energy or of facilities for the generation or transmission of electric energy, or of fuel or water for generating facilities, or other causes.”

The appeals court said the law arose from a World War I situation involving a “serious power shortage,” a condition it found does not exist in the United States today. The ruling stated that there was “no ‘emergency’ within the meaning” of the statute.

Pillard also wrote that reversing the plant’s “long and carefully planned retirement ... the results are disruptive.” Officials said keeping the Michigan facility open cost the state at least $135 million in 2025 alone.

The ruling is part of a broader series of legal disputes between states and the Department of Energy. The Associated Press reported in April that Trump had used the same emergency authority to prevent a half-dozen coal-fired plants from closing. The court’s opinion is available here.