Not the DOE’s job

The court spends a fair bit of time analyzing the history and structure of the regulation of the US electric grid. With very little in the way of exceptions, this leaves regulation of generating capacity to the states; the federal government only gets involved when it comes to interstate transmission lines. It notes that the same Federal Power Act that’s at issue here, for example, “expressly denies [Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] authority to regulate generation facilities directly.”

The court interprets this as an indication that Congress had intended for federal intervention at the level of generation facilities to be rare and only in cases where there was an immediate shortfall that could only be addressed through federal action. And it notes that this is exactly how the authority had been used throughout its history. “Indeterminate assertions of summer electricity shortfalls are not what Congress meant by ’emergency,’” the judges conclude.

Here, in contrast, we had a carefully planned closure that included ensuring a newer generating facility compensated for the plant’s closure. “Permitting DOE to compel generation in a situation that can be resolved through the ordinary resource adequacy planning mechanisms or a request under section 202(b) would render meaningless the constraints on federal power that Congress imposed throughout the Act,” the decision concludes.

As a result, the court voided the DOE’s emergency declaration. Barring an appeal, this means that Michigan can finally continue with its planned shutdown process, relieving the local ratepayers from the costs incurred to maintain the coal plant to a state where it could be brought back online.

Perhaps more significantly, however, is that the same logic will apply to all other cases where the DOE has attempted to force plants to stay open. So, as long as someone is willing to challenge them and the decision doesn’t get overturned on appeal, it’s likely that all the other coal plants the Trump administration has kept open, and possibly its other actions under the same emergency authority, will be reversed. According to the DOE, it has issued over 55 emergency orders in 2026 alone.

(For the curious, that’s more than double the total number issued between 2000 and 2025.)