Consumers Energy planned to close a costly, nearly 70-year-old coal-burning power plant. In May, the Trump administration ordered the utility to keep it operating.
That order is now being challenged in court.
President Donald Trump declared an "energy emergency" early in the year. A few months later the Department of Energy ordered Consumers Energy to keep the J.H. Campbell coal-burning power plant in Ottawa County operating past its planned closure date on May 31.
Nine environmental groups, including Sierra Club and Earthjustice, are taking the agency to federal court after it refused to hold a re-hearing of the order.
The groups say the order to keep the aging power plant was "unlawful and unreasonable" in its petition to the court.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is intervening separately in another case filed by Consumers Energy. According to reporting by my colleague Tracy Samilton, the utility seeks to assess the costs of operating the plant on the majority of grid customers, rather than solely on Consumers Energy customers in Michigan.
"This unprecedented order of the Department of Energy declares an emergency without evidence, completely ignores state and federal regulators that approved the plant's retirement, and will potentially put enormous costs onto utility customers who receive no real benefit," Nessel said in a press release.
The Trump administration's interference in Consumer Energy's planned closure of the Campbell power plant runs counter to Michigan's plans to switch the state to power generation that does not contribute to climate change.
Keeping the old, inefficient, and polluting power plant running will cost Consumers and eventually ratepayers an estimated $100 million or more, depending on how long it is required to keep operating.
Trump's "energy emergency" is an attempt to bolster fossil fuel industries and in particular, what he calls, the "beautiful clean coal" mining industry.
Editor's note: Consumers Energy is among Michigan Public and WCMU's corporate sponsors. We report on them as we do with any other organization.
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