The U.S. Department of Energy has issued a fourth emergency order keeping the J.H. Campbell coal plant in Michigan online through mid-May.

DOE renewed its emergency declaration Feb. 17, the day it was set to expire, under Federal Power Act Section 202(c). The 1.45-GW coal plant in western Michigan is now mandated to remain operational until May 18. (See DOE Issues 3rd Emergency Order to Keep Michigan Coal Plant Open.)

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said emergency grid conditions “will continue in the near term and are also likely to continue in subsequent years.” Campbell has been operating since May 2025 under orders from the department.

DOE cited MISO’s recent maximum generation emergency on Jan. 24, as well as data from EPA showing that from June to December 2025, the Campbell plant generated an average 561,100 MWh/month. It also referred to NERC’s 2025 Long-Term Reliability Assessment, which stamped the MISO footprint as “high risk.” (See MISO Enters Max Gen Emergency in Arctic Blast and MISO States Dispute ‘High Risk’ Designation from NERC.)

The coal plant’s revenue has covered just over half of its operating costs since its thwarted retirement date.

The running total for keeping the plant open is up to $135 million as of the end of 2025, according to a Securities and Exchange filing Feb. 10 from owner Consumers Energy.

Over 2025, the trio of DOE directives led Consumers to accrue $290 million in costs. The company said plant output earned the utility $155 million in revenue, leaving $135 million due in costs including fuel, employee pay and plant maintenance. That means the utility lost nearly $631,000/day over the last seven months of 2025 running the nearly 64-year-old plant.

Consumers sought FERC approval in late January to pass nearly $42 million in net costs for running Campbell on to utility customers across MISO Midwest (ER26-1138). Those costs stem from the first order in May 2025 only.

Despite opposing the forced operations of the plant, the Michigan Public Service Commission supported the cost recovery.

“While the Michigan PSC adamantly disputes that there is, in fact, an energy emergency that warrants the use of the Federal Power Act to keep the Campbell plant open, the merits of the DOE order are not at issue in this docket,” the commission said.

The utility anticipated the issuance of the fourth order in its FERC filing.

“Expeditious action is warranted here to ensure regulatory certainty as we approach the expected issuance of a fourth DOE order requiring the company to keep the Campbell plant available to operate for another 90-day period,” Consumers said.

Environmental groups condemned the fourth issuance, which would keep the plant operating nearly a year past its regularly scheduled retirement date.

“Because of the Trump administration’s illegal mandates, this aging, polluting coal plant is bleeding millions of dollars, and Midwestern families are footing the bill for it,” Ted Kelly, counsel with Environmental Defense Fund, said in a statement. “None of this is necessary. The utility and state officials worked for years to replace the capacity of this more than half-a-century-old coal plant with cheaper, cleaner energy — and made sure that these plans would deliver reliable power. It’s yet another example of the Trump administration putting its thumb on the scale to prop up the coal industry at the expense of people’s health and their hard-earned money.”

In early February, Wright credited DOE’s string of emergency orders to keep coal plants online with helping to avoid power failures during the late January winter storm and subsequent cold snap. The department’s initial order to stop Campbell from shuttering has proven to be a familiar script for other orders to coal plants in Washington, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Indiana.

Prior to the second Trump administration, DOE generally used such emergency orders for short-lived periods during unexpected events, such as extreme weather or natural disasters.

EDF said three coal plants associated with the orders are increasingly in disrepair: The Campbell plant partially failed during MISO’s June 2025 peak demand; Unit 18 at the R.M. Schahfer Generating Station in Indiana is broken and has been since July 2025; and a unit at the Craig plant in Colorado broke down in late 2025 after a valve failed.