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Washington, D.C. — Today, Sierra Club and Earthjustice presented oral arguments before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in the legal challenge against the Department of Energy’s (DOE) illegal application of Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act.
“The Sierra Club will not stand by and let the administration illegally force coal plants to stay online while American families pay the price,” said Sierra Club Senior Attorney Greg Wannier. “The Trump administration is using this made-up emergency to throw unpopular, expensive, and archaic coal plants a life line. These orders have already cost families far too much of their hard-earned money, and we will put an end to them.”
In May 2025, DOE claimed there was an “energy emergency” and forced the J.H. Campbell power plant in Michigan to remain online past its scheduled retirement. Since then, the “emergency” order has been re-issued four times. Extension of the Campbell coal plant and other coal plants, including the Culley and Schahfer plants in Indiana, have increased utility bills for Hoosiers. CenterPoint, owner of the Culley coal plant, even wrote a letter to the DOE asking them not to reissue an emergency order, stating that maintaining the coal plant “will require substantial investment to support an inefficient and increasingly unreliable asset.” The DOE ignored this request and ordered CenterPoint to keep the Culley unit open through at least June 21, 2026.
