Trump’s Fake Energy Emergency Has Its First Victims: Michigan Ratepayers
Energy Department cites Trump's 100% fake energy emergency as justification to force the 1,560 MW coal power plant in Michigan to operate beyond retirement
The U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright today issued an emergency order forcing the continued operation of a coal fired power plant in Michigan. The plant, a J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant in West Olive, Michigan, was scheduled to be shut down on May 31, 2025. In response, Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program, issued the following statement:
“Forcing ratepayers in Michigan to pay to keep the inefficient, expensive, and polluting J.H. Campbell coal power plant operational is a radical abuse of the Federal Power Act’s emergency authorities. The move is part of the Trump Administration’s fake national energy emergency declaration, and serves no purpose beyond attempting to prop up the dying coal industry.
“The order directing the power plant’s owner, Consumers Energy, to file a cost recovery filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission puts a major burden on ratepayers to fork over their paychecks to support a dying industry and is a wild abuse of power. Public Citizen will file a protest at FERC opposing this outrageous abuse of emergency authorities.”
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