States, Environmental Groups Slam DOE for Reopening Coal Plant

A group of states and environmental groups is accusing the Trump administration of reopening a coal plant after failing to demonstrate an energy emergency justifying the move.

Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois joined the Sierra Club, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and other groups in challenging the Energy Department’s use of the Federal Power Act’s emergency provision to block the closure of the aging J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant in West Olive, Mich.

The agency ignored “concrete evidence of resource adequacy” of short-term energy supplies to invoke Section 202 of the law, which allows the secretary of energy to order temporary ...