A US federal appeals court has ruled that the Trump administration acted unlawfully in forcing a Michigan coal plant to stay open, in a decision expected to apply to every similar coal plant closure the Department of Energy has blocked nationwide. The DOE had invoked emergency powers under the Federal Power Act to keep ageing, polluting plants running despite no genuine supply shortage, part of a broader push by the administration to reverse the long-term decline of coal-fired power generation in the US.

The unanimous three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals focused on the J.H. Campbell Generating Plant, which had been due to close last year but was kept running through five successive 90-day emergency declarations. The court found the DOE could not substantiate a genuine emergency, noting that the plant's closure had already been thoroughly vetted and approved by Michigan's utility commission and grid operator MISO, and that government evidence, including a report and a slide deck, did not show any real risk of a supply shortfall. Judges also cited estimates that the plant's pollution contributes to around 30 deaths a year, and stressed that the Federal Power Act generally leaves regulation of power generation to individual states rather than the federal government.