DC Circuit Limits DOE Emergency Orders in 64-Year-Old Coal Plant Ruling

For regulatory and energy litigators, the D.C. Circuit's decision is an important interpretation of the Federal Power Act's emergency provisions. The unanimous panel held that DOE's authority is a 'narrow, last-resort backstop' and cannot supersede state resource adequacy planners without proof of an immediate, last-resort need. That framing has broad implications for pending challenges to other emergency orders across Indiana, Colorado, Florida, and Washington.

In a unanimous decision issued Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the Department of Energy exceeded its statutory authority when it forced the 64-year-old J.H. Campbell Generating Plant in West Olive, Michigan to stay online past its scheduled 2025 retirement. Judge Cornelia Pillard wrote for the three-judge panel that the Federal Power Act's emergency provision is 'essentially a narrow, last-resort backstop,' and that DOE's use of that authority is triggered only when immediate, last-resort action is required and when DOE specifically, rather than state resource adequacy authorities, must act. The court found DOE failed to meet that standard and said reversing Campbell's 'long and carefully planned retirement' was 'disruptive.'

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The Michigan order was challenged by the states of Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota, along with environmental groups.

The ruling directly resolves only the Campbell order, but its reasoning casts a long shadow over the nationwide campaign the administration has pursued under its January 2025 national energy emergency declaration. The White House initially invoked that emergency citing rising electricity demand from artificial intelligence and data center growth. Since then, DOE has used emergency orders to keep at least a half-dozen coal-fired plants operating in Indiana, Colorado, Florida and Washington, and it also ordered an oil- and gas-fired plant in Pennsylvania to remain online as a hedge against mid-Atlantic grid shortages. The Michigan order was challenged by the states of Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota, along with environmental groups. Hours after Friday's ruling, Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced yet another emergency order for TransAlta's Centralia, Washington coal plant, which had been scheduled to close at the end of 2025.

The opinion supplies a clear judicial test for future cases: DOE must demonstrate both an immediate need and that no state or regional entity can address the problem. That standard could be difficult to meet in regions where grid operators and state regulators have already planned for retirement and replacement capacity. For utilities and independent power producers, the decision narrows the window in which federal emergency orders can override state-backed planning. Consumers Energy, which operates the Campbell plant, had planned its retirement. With the DOE order vacated, the plant's status returns to the ordinary state regulatory framework, although technical and economic realities may delay actual closure. Ratepayers in the three challenging states have argued that forced operation raises costs while adding avoidable air and water pollution. In invalidating the order, the court effectively eliminates those incremental costs for Campbell, but not for plants in other states where orders remain in force.