Michigan's Attorney General and environmental groups are opposing the Trump administration's order to keep an aging coal plant running.
Consumers Energy was days away from closing the J.H. Campbell plant — its last coal-burning power plant — when the U.S. Department of Energy ordered the utility to keep it running for 90 days, claiming there was an energy emergency.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said the order was arbitrary and unlawful.
“This unprecedented order of the Department of Energy declares an emergency without evidence, completely ignores state and federal regulators that approved the plants retirement, and will potentially put enormous costs onto utility customers who receive no real benefit," she said in a press release.
Nessel is intervening in a case filed by Consumers Energy before federal regulators. 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.
Tyson Slocum is head of Public Citizen's Energy Program. The group is also intervening in the case. He said the DOE order was motivated by politics, not a concern for electric capacity.
He said if anyone should pay to keep the aging plant less than a mile from Lake Michigan running, it should be the federal government.
"There is no energy emergency, there is no need for emergency authority to keep the Campbell unit open. And we're going to do everything we can to expose this phony emergency as a fraud and ensure that hardworking ratepayers don't pay a dime for Trump's fake emergency," he said.
Both Nessel and environmental groups have asked the Department of Energy to reconsider its order. Federal rules require the DOE to consider the request and respond within 30 days — after which, if the order stands, challengers are permitted to sue the Department of Energy in federal court.
In the separate case before federal regulators, Consumers Energy is asking for a special tariff allowing it to charge costs for operating the Campbell plant to electric customers within the regional electric grid that includes Michigan and 14 other states plus the Canadian province of Manitoba.
Editor's note: Consumers Energy is among Michigan Public's corporate sponsors.
