A three-judge panel rejects the emergency DOE used to keep a Michigan coal plant open
The J.H. Campbell plant kept running on 90-day orders. The DC Circuit held that the Energy Department's evidence of tight summer margins is not the shortage section 202(c) describes, and Ars Technica says the reasoning reaches other blocked closures.
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What happened
- A unanimous three-judge panel of the DC Circuit ruled on Friday that the Energy Department's emergency declaration keeping Michigan's J.H. Campbell coal plant open was contrary to the statute.
- The panel rejected the government's two exhibits, one of them a Midwestern grid reserves report that said the system has "adequate anticipated resources" for "peak load conditions".
- The judges also found the department never explained why or how keeping Campbell open would avert the emergency it had described.
- Ars Technica reported that closing the plant would have caused no disruption, because Michigan's multi-year planning process with the major grids had already covered it.
- Environmentalists brought the challenge, and Ars Technica reported it is the first case against these declarations to make its way through the courts.
Why it matters
- What it limits constraint DOE can still invoke 202(c), but the department now has to put severity, timing, location and likelihood in the record before an order will survive review, and a seasonal reserve chart will not carry it.
- Who has to decide decision For planners who have been carrying two closure dates per unit, the filed one and the one that survives the next renewal, the filed date is now the one with a court behind it.
- What it sets up precedent Parties fighting other blocked closures have a standard to test DOE's existing records against, so the challenge work moves from arguing the statute to reading each order's evidence.
- What doesn't add up contradiction Gizmodo counts six 90-day orders at Campbell and Ars Technica counts five, so both the length of the extension record and any per-order cost figure depend on which count you take.
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The order that kept J.H. Campbell running was the cheapest instrument the Energy Department had. One declaration bought 90 days, and five in sequence bought 450, about 15 months past the date the plant was supposed to stop burning coal [18][20]. Renewal took no hearing and no revised state plan. For anyone maintaining a retirement schedule, the same closure date moved five times [18].
The panel asked for specifics. The judges wrote that "Those indeterminate assertions of summer electricity shortfalls are not what Congress meant by 'emergency' in section 202(c)" [9], and they said the bare possibility of an electricity supply shortfall, with no specifics about its potential severity, timing, location or likelihood, does not warrant an emergency federal response [10]. A reserve margin that gets thin in July supplies none of those four.
The second holding is the one that touches capacity models. The department never explained how keeping Campbell online would avert the shortfall it described [11], and the panel wrote that the order "interferes with ordinary methods to assess a region's true generation capacity and distorts price signals that otherwise prompt appropriate capacity investments" [12]. A unit held online outside of merit changes the observed picture that everyone else's forecast is built from.
According to Bridge Michigan, keeping Campbell open has cost $259 million, while the original plan to close it and switch to natural gas would have saved $600 million [13][14]. Spread across five orders, the spend works out to roughly $52 million per 90-day extension [21]. Coal-fired generation on the US grid has been falling for nearly two decades, Ars Technica reported [5].
The two accounts of the ruling's reach differ. Gizmodo writes that the case only applies to the Michigan plant [3]. Ars Technica writes that the reasoning of the decision "will apply to every coal plant closure that has been blocked by the DOE" [22], and counts 55 such orders issued this year [15]. Both readings can hold: the judgment binds one declaration, and the standard governs the records behind the others in whichever court hears them next.
For anyone holding a retirement date, the check is two questions per unit. First, whether someone can write a single sentence describing the shortfall the unit is supposed to cure, with a megawatt figure, a set of hours, and a zone. Second, whether the closure sits in a filed multi-year plan the grid operator has already reviewed. A unit with a specific, located shortfall behind it and no filed plan is where a 202(c) order still has room to work. A unit with a filed plan and nothing behind the federal case but a seasonal margin chart is the position the department just lost [1].
What to watch
- Whether DOE seeks further review of the panel's decision, and whether Campbell's owner sets a new closure date.
- Whether the other pending challenges from states with blocked closures now cite this panel's reasoning.
- Whether DOE keeps issuing 202(c) orders on records built the same way, with seasonal margin evidence.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence74
- Adoption40
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives32
- Confidence72
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
A unanimous three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that the Department of Energy's emergency declaration keeping the J.H. Campbell Generating Plant open was contrary to the statute.
- [2]
Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act allows the DOE to order plants to stay open during war or when "an emergency exists by reason of a sudden increase in the demand for electric energy, or a shortage of electric energy."
- [3]
Gizmodo wrote that the case only applies to the Michigan plant.
- [4]
Environmentalists sued over the DOE orders keeping the Campbell plant open.
- [5]
Ars Technica reported that the use of coal to generate electricity on the US grid has been plunging for nearly two decades.
- [6]
The DC Circuit rebuffed two pieces of evidence provided by the government: a report on the Midwestern power grid's reserves and a slide deck showing that peak electrical demand on that grid comes close to supply in the summer.
- [7]
The government's reserves report explicitly stated that the grid has "adequate anticipated resources" for "peak load conditions".
- [8]
Gizmodo reported that the judges found the slide deck was only evidence that summer occurs.
- [9]
The judges wrote: "Those indeterminate assertions of summer electricity shortfalls are not what Congress meant by 'emergency' in section 202(c)."
- [10]
The judges wrote: "The mere possibility of an electricity supply shortfall -- with no specifics about its potential severity, timing, location, or likelihood -- does not warrant an emergency federal response."
- [11]
The judges found that the DOE had failed to explain why or how keeping J.H. Campbell open would avert the emergency it described.
- [12]
The judges wrote that the order made maintaining the grid more difficult because it "interferes with ordinary methods to assess a region's true generation capacity and distorts price signals that otherwise prompt appropriate capacity investments."
- [13]
According to Bridge Michigan, efforts to keep J.H. Campbell open have cost $259 million.
- [14]
According to Bridge Michigan, the original plan to close J.H. Campbell and switch to natural gas would have saved $600 million.
- [15]
Ars Technica noted that the administration has issued 55 such orders so far this year.
- [16]
Ars Technica reported that this was the first of the challenges to the DOE declarations to make its way through the courts.
- [17]
As Ars Technica noted, shutting down the plant would not have resulted in any disruption, because the state's multi-year planning process, which involved collaboration with major energy grids, took care of that.
- [18]
The J.H. Campbell Generating Plant was scheduled to close last year and has been kept open by a total of five emergency declarations by the DOE, each limited to 90 days by the Federal Power Act.
- [19]
Gizmodo reported that in 2025 the DOE issued the first in what became a series of six 90-day "emergency" orders to keep the Campbell plant open.
- [20]
Five 90-day declarations cover 450 days, about 15 months past the plant's scheduled closure.
- [21]
The reported $259 million cost spread across five 90-day orders works out to roughly $52 million per extension.
- [22]
Ars Technica wrote that while the ruling only affects a single coal plant in Michigan, the reasoning of the decision "will apply to every coal plant closure that has been blocked by the DOE."
Sources
2 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- arstechnica.comCourt rejects government's energy "emergency" that kept coal plant open
1 article · September 11, 2026
- gizmodo.comJudges Rule Trump Can’t Just Make Up An Emergency to Keep Coal Plant Open
1 article · September 12, 2026
Topics and entities
Topics
- Coal plant retirements
- Emergency grid orders
- Grid reliability planning
- Judicial review of agency power
Entities
- J.H. Campbell Generating Plant
- Gizmodo
- Federal Power Act section 202(c)
- Donald Trump
- Ars Technica
- US Department of Energy
- DC Circuit Court of Appeals