Coal generation retirements dropped to a 15-year low in 2025 as the energy industry tried to maintain existing capacity and the Trump administration sought to halt coal’s decline.

Too many emissions are baked in to the atmosphere for the world to limit global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which was the target for the 2015 Paris Agreement, Resources For the Future said in its Global Energy Outlook 2026 report.

Challenges are piling up to Trump administration orders to keep retiring coal plants online, as the Colorado attorney general and environmental groups have filed petitions to overturn an extension of Craig Station Unit 1.

The Department of Energy argued its use of Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act to keep retiring power plants online is well within its authority in response to an ongoing emergency on the grid.

Public interest organizations have taken their challenge of the Department of Energy’s emergency orders keeping two Indiana coal plants operating past their planned retirement dates to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Department of Energy extended an order that will continue to keep Washington’s last remaining coal-fired plant open past its long-scheduled retirement at the end of 2025.

Washington’s attorney general and a coalition of public interest organizations filed separate lawsuits to overturn the Department of Energy’s order requiring TransAlta to continue operating the state’s last coal-fired plant beyond its scheduled retirement.

The Department of Energy ordered PJM and Constellation Energy to keep the 760-MW Eddystone Generating Station online through May 24.

A bill in the Colorado legislature seeks to reduce the environmental impact of federal orders delaying the retirement of coal-fired power plants.

The Department of Energy issued a fourth emergency order, keeping the J.H. Campbell coal plant in Michigan online through mid-May and likely beyond.