Federal appeals court vacates Trump order extending operations for a west Michigan coal plant

Filed 1h ago · Via Michigan Advance · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Tenebrous Brothers Carnival - Act Two

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Rijksmuseum · CC0 · via Wikimedia Commons

A federal appeals court vacated the Department of Energy's repeated orders keeping the J.H. Campbell coal plant in West Olive, Michigan running past its planned retirement, ruling the department exceeded its emergency authority under the Federal Power Act.

Consumers Energy had announced the plant's retirement back in 2021, with sign-off from both the Michigan Public Service Commission and the regional grid operator, which found the closure would not threaten reliability. The D.C. Circuit panel said states, not the department, hold the long-established authority to plan for and avert reliability risks.

Judge Cornelia Pillard wrote that the department's position would let it pick preferred power sources in any state and order them to keep running regardless of the state processes built to manage exactly that question.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

The state and the grid operator both looked at this plant and said it could close without the lights going out. The federal government looked at the same facts and declared an emergency anyway. A judge just pointed out that calling something urgent doesn't make it true, which is a lesson usually taught earlier in life.

Source: Read the original at Michigan Advance → Scored: Tenebrous Brothers Carnival - Act Two · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

Read it scored.

Every story, every clown, every kazoo — in your pocket. Music plays automatically. Regret is optional.

GET IT ON iOS GET IT ON ANDROID