A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. determined on Friday that Energy Secretary Chris Wright exceeded his authority by issuing an emergency order to keep Michigan’s J.H. Campbell coal power plant operational. The three-judge panel, led by Appeals Court Judge Cornelia Pillard, found unanimously that Wright’s use of emergency authority under the Federal Power Act violated the statute’s intent as a narrow, last-resort measure meant only for extraordinary circumstances. The court noted that the emergency order disrupted a long and carefully planned retirement process involving multiple stakeholders, including the plant’s owner, Consumers Energy.
Within hours of the ruling, Wright issued another emergency order, this time targeting TransAlta’s Centralia Generating Station Unit 2 in Washington state. According to the Department of Energy, the order was issued to address grid reliability concerns in the Northwestern region. The original closure of Centralia Unit 2 was scheduled for the end of 2025, and Wright issued the first emergency order in December. However, the station has not supplied electricity to the grid since mid-December, despite the emergency orders being issued and extended multiple times.
Environmental organizations challenging the orders, including the Sierra Club and Earthjustice, argue that no genuine grid emergency exists. According to Earthjustice’s analysis, during the most stressed period for the MISO regional grid during summer 2025, the system had more than 10 times the surplus generation capacity compared to the power supplied by the Campbell plant. Similarly, during winter 2025-26, the grid maintained a surplus of unused resources estimated between 5,000 and 7,500 megawatts. The Centralia order creates additional complications, as the plant’s planned transition involves converting to natural gas generation rather than renewables, potentially affecting both natural gas and nuclear energy stakeholders’ expectations for future development at the site.
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