President Donald Trump is not just talking about saving coal, his administration is using every available lever to keep aging plants on the grid. From emergency directives to revived advisory councils, the White House is turning what were once market-driven retirements into political flashpoints over reliability, cost, and climate. I see a coherent strategy emerging: redefine “energy security” around coal and then bend federal tools to match that vision.
The result is a growing clash between Washington and states that had planned to phase out coal, as well as consumer advocates who say ratepayers are footing the bill for plants that were supposed to be offline. The stakes are national, but the story is being written in specific places, from Centralia in Washington to Craig in Colorado and West Olive in Michigan.
From executive orders to a “war” on coal’s critics
The policy shift starts at the top, with President Donald Trump’s directive to federal agencies to prioritize coal as a strategic fuel. Among the efforts is Trump issuing an April executive order titled “Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry and Amending,” which instructs agencies to roll back barriers and “undertake other actions to bolster the industry.” I read that as a green light for the Department of Energy to treat coal not as a sunset fuel but as infrastructure to be protected, even when utilities and state regulators have decided to move on.
The Department of Energy has now framed its mission in explicitly political terms, saying it is “ENDING THE WAR ON BEAUTIFUL CLEAN COAL” and “REINVIGORATING AMERICA’S COAL INDUSTRY BY REINSTATING THE NATIONAL COAL COUNCIL.” In its own fact sheet, DOE touts that under President Trump’s leadership it is reversing what it calls a years-long decline and positioning coal as essential to reliability. A separate section of that same document underscores that “The Trump Administration and DOE” want to keep plants like those in Centralia, Washington available to operate, signaling that specific facilities are now being singled out for federal protection.
Emergency orders keep coal plants running past retirement
The most aggressive tool in this campaign is the use of emergency powers to override closure plans. The Trump administration has ordered coal-fired plants that were slated to shut to remain online, a pattern documented in a summary of recent directives that describes federal orders keeping multiple units running. I see these moves as a direct test of how far Washington can go in dictating resource choices that utilities and state regulators thought were settled.
In northwest Colorado, Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright used that authority one Tuesday to issue an emergency order requiring Craig Station’s Unit 1 to stay open just one day before its scheduled closure. Local reporting notes that the directive from Department of Energy kept the first of the plant’s three units operating despite plans to retire it for economic, energy, and environmental reasons. A separate account explains that The Trump administration, citing an emergency need for electricity, ordered Tri-State Generation and Transmission to continue running the Craig Station coal plant, with the directive aimed at Tri State Generation and Transmission even as local groups questioned whether an actual emergency existed.
Centralia and the clash with state transition plans
Nowhere is the collision between federal coal policy and state climate goals clearer than in Washington. The TransAlta facility in Centralia was on track to switch to natural gas, part of a negotiated deal to phase out coal in the state. Instead, the Trump administration has ordered Washington’s last coal plant to keep burning, with federal officials directing that the Centralia plant remain online despite state law and company plans to end coal generation by the end of this year.
That order has triggered outrage from state officials, who argue that the U.S. Department of Energy under President Donald Trump is trampling Washington’s authority to manage its own energy mix. In one account, the Department of Energy, acting under President Donald Trump, issued an emergency order directing TransAlta (referred to as Tra in the document) to keep the coal-fired units running instead of completing the shift to gas and renewables. For residents of Centralia, a town already defined by its coal legacy, the move means more years of local air pollution and a delayed economic transition that had been carefully negotiated.
Michigan’s Campbell plant and the consumer cost debate
The administration’s coal push is not just about keeping plants open, it is about who pays for that decision. In West Olive, Michigan, the Campbell coal plant has become a symbol of the financial burden of these emergency orders. Reporting shows that the Campbell coal plant in West Olive, Michigan, has cost Midwestern ratepayers $80 m since May, with operator Consumers Energy saying in regulatory filings that the plant has imposed $80 million in extra costs to keep it running.
President Trump has justified extending the life of that plant on reliability grounds, citing an emergency need to keep the Michigan facility online into winter. In an earnings call, Consumers Energy reported that the cost of keeping the plant running past its planned closure had added tens of millions of dollars from May to the end of September, a tab that ultimately lands on Midwestern customers. Environmental advocates argue that this is exactly what happens when the Department of Energy’s abuse of power charges consumers for an emergency that does not exist, a critique laid out in detail by Shannon Fisk, who says the administration is forcing power plants to continue burning fossil fuels long after they make economic sense.
Coal over renewables and the return of the National Coal Council
Behind these plant-by-plant fights is a broader effort to tilt the grid toward coal and away from competing resources. Reporting on how the administration has used emergency powers describes instances where coal was favored over wind projects, including clashes with New York Governor Kathy Hochul. One account notes that orders were issued and later reversed by a federal judge, and quotes White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers defending the decisions as necessary for reliability, even as critics saw them as choosing coal over wind to help a favored fuel.
The institutional backbone of this push is the reinstated National Coal Council. Trump officials welcomed dozens of coal and industry executives to the newly revived body, which had lapsed under the previous administration, and used the gathering to promise that coal would remain central to federal energy planning. According to one account, Trump officials vowed to keep the council closely tied to industry interests, while a separate DOE fact sheet boasts that the agency is “REINSTATING THE NATIONAL COAL COUNCIL” as part of its effort to be REINVIGORATING America’s coal industry. I see that as a signal that advisory channels inside government are being reshaped to prioritize coal’s perspective on everything from grid planning to environmental rules.
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