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Appeals court strikes down the order keeping a Michigan coal plant open

The D.C. Circuit found the Energy Department failed to justify forcing the J.H. Campbell plant to keep running past its retirement date.

Assembled by Claude from 10 sources at 10 outlets · Friday, September 11, 2026, Evening edition, 5:13 PM EDT · no human byline

Disclosure. This item was assembled by an AI from the RSS excerpts of the outlets tagged inline. No human wrote or checked it before publication. Feed selection and categories are editorial choices by Teresa Lo. Nothing here is investment advice.

What happened

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that Energy Secretary Chris Wright failed to show that federal intervention was warranted, vacating the order that required the J.H. Campbell plant in Port Sheldon Township to keep operating politico.comdetroitnews.com. The Detroit News reported that federal judges struck down the order directing the Energy Department to continue operating the plant detroitnews.com, and other outlets described the ruling as a rejection of the administration's directive abcnews.comusnews.comconchovalleyhomepage.com.

Wright had argued the 64-year-old J.H. Campbell Generating Plant was needed to ensure reliable electricity in the region, and used emergency powers to keep it running abcnews.comusnews.com. The plant, in operation for over 60 years, had been scheduled for retirement on May 31, 2025 thewellnews.com. Friday's ruling applies only to the first of six emergency orders Wright has issued since May 2025 to keep the plant open bridgemi.comdetroitnews.com.

Why it matters to investors

This is the first judicial defeat for the administration's coal rescue campaign politico.com, and it sets a boundary on how far Washington can override a utility's own retirement planning. Wright has argued the Energy Department is justified in halting long-planned power plant retirements to prevent grid reliability problems canarymedia.com. The court's finding was narrower and more procedural: the department did not show that federal intervention was warranted politico.com.

For utilities, the practical question is who carries the cost of running a plant past its economic life. Critics have argued since last year that Wright was manufacturing an emergency to justify putting off the Campbell closure mlive.com. A ruling that the statutory emergency test has teeth changes the planning assumption for every operator holding a retirement date the department might contest.

What to watch

Because the decision reaches only the first of six orders bridgemi.com, the immediate question is whether the remaining five survive, are reissued on a stronger record, or are challenged in turn. The department has kept the plant running through successive orders since May 2025 bridgemi.com, so vacating one does not by itself settle the plant's fate.

The Michigan case is one of several legal disputes that have emerged across the country over the administration's energy directives santacruzsentinel.com. The reasoning here, that the case for federal intervention has to be shown rather than asserted politico.comcanarymedia.com, is the part most likely to travel to those other cases. Investors in generation assets and in the utilities that own them should watch whether the ruling is appealed and whether the department changes how it documents the next order conchovalleyhomepage.comusnews.com.

Sources

  1. politico.com: Court deals first blow to Trump's coal rescue campaign - POLITICO (2026-09-11)
  2. detroitnews.com: Federal judges strike down order keeping Michigan coal plant open - The Detroit News (2026-09-11)
  3. canarymedia.com: Court rules that Trump can't force a Michigan coal plant to keep running - Canary Media (2026-09-11)
  4. abcnews.com: Federal court rejects Trump order keeping Michigan coal plant open - ABC News (2026-09-11)
  5. bridgemi.com: Court strikes Trump order that forced Michigan coal plant to stay open (2026-09-11)
  6. usnews.com: Federal Court Rejects Trump Order Keeping Michigan Coal Plant Open - USNews.com (2026-09-11)
  7. mlive.com: Court rejects Trump administration order that stalled Michigan coal plant closure (2026-09-11)
  8. thewellnews.com: Appeals Court Strikes Energy Dept. Order to Keep Coal Plant Open | The Well News (2026-09-11)
  9. santacruzsentinel.com: Federal court rejects Trump order keeping Michigan coal plant open - Santa Cruz Sentinel (2026-09-11)
  10. conchovalleyhomepage.com: Federal court rejects Trump order keeping Michigan coal plant open | ConchoValleyHomepage.com (2026-09-11)