Cooler but still well above normal this week

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Minnesota's electric utilities plan to shut down the state's aging coal-fired power plants within the next decade.

But Minnesota electricity customers still might be on the financial hook for coal plants in other states that were scheduled for retirement, but ordered by the Trump administration to keep operating.

President Donald Trump has made it a priority for the U.S. to keep using fossil fuels, and slowing the shift toward wind and solar energy. That commitment has included reversing plans to shutter coal-burning power plants.

The J.H. Campbell coal plant in West Olive, Mich., was scheduled to close in May of 2025. One week before its scheduled shutdown, the U.S. Department of Energy 

 to continue operating for another 90 days.

Since then, the department has twice more ordered the plant to keep running. It’s issued similar orders for coal plants in other states, including Indiana, Colorado and Washington.

In its emergency order for the Michigan plant, the Department of Energy said the plant is needed to ensure grid reliability, meet electricity demand and minimize the risk of a shortage. 

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright credited Trump’s efforts to keep coal plants open with helping prevent a major blackout and saving lives during the recent frigid weather that gripped much of the U.S.

However, some state and utility officials and environmental groups have pushed back on that claim. They say there isn’t an emergency that requires continuing to burn coal.

“It's a coal bailout,” said Jenna Yeakle, who manages the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign.  “Folks like you and me here in Minnesota, we're being forced to pay for these coal plants that aren't even in our state."

Opposing groups say electric utilities must go through a lengthy and detailed planning process with state regulators before they shut down a plant, which includes making sure they have enough energy resources to meet demand.

Coal power plants emit greenhouse gases, which contribute to climate change. Many states and utilities have set climate goals to switch to cleaner forms of energy, such as wind and solar.

There’s also an economic factor that’s motivating utilities to shut down older coal plants, said Michael Goggin, executive vice president of Grid Strategies, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm that researches power grid issues.

“In all cases, they found that these old fossil plants were uneconomic, and could be replaced with newer, lower cost, more efficient resources,” Goggin said.

The plants scheduled for retirement are at least 40 or 50 years old, are costly to maintain and require expensive upgrades to keep them operating, he said.

The Department of Energy “is overriding that decision by the plant owners and the regulators and mandating that these old, uneconomic resources that are at the end of their useful life be kept online,” Goggin said.

 in August on behalf of a coalition of environmental groups. It estimates that forcing the ongoing operation of coal plants scheduled for retirement could cost consumers at least $3 billion a year.

MISO officials have raised concerns about 

 facing the electric grid, including fossil fuel plants retiring, extreme weather and rising demand for electricity, including from data centers. 

Coal opponents say those are long-term planning issues that states and utilities are already working on – not an immediate emergency.

The emergency orders could affect Minnesota consumers in the form of higher electric bills. 

The owner of the Campbell plant, Consumers Energy, said it cost $80 million to keep the plant running for the first four months after its planned retirement date, and the costs continue to mount.

Consumers Energy wants to spread its costs beyond just Michigan to electricity customers across the entire footprint of the Midwest Independent System, or MISO. It operates the electric grid in 15 U.S. states and the Canadian province of Manitoba.

“Minnesotans will see their bills increase in order for this plant to stay operational in Michigan, even if it's not really needed to meet the demand that that we need here in Minnesota,” said Brian Edstrom, senior regulatory advocate with the Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota, a nonprofit that advocates for utility customers.

The exact financial impact on customers’ bills isn’t yet clear, Edstrom said, but it comes at a time when electricity costs are already straining people's budgets.

"It's just not a great time to have an additional cost like this added on to the tab that we're all paying, when many folks are already struggling to afford their electric bills,” he said.

Some state officials are challenging the Department of Energy's emergency order to keep the J.H. Campbell plant operating. 

Attorneys general in Minnesota and Illinois have asked a federal appeals court to review the case. Environmental and consumer advocacy groups also are joining in.

They argue that the Department of Energy hasn’t proven that an emergency exists, and it failed to consider the financial impact of forcing coal plants to keep operating.

Some worry the Trump administration could order Minnesota’s remaining coal plants to continue operating, although there’s been no signs of that yet.

Minnesota utilities plan to phase out coal over the next decade, including shuttering the remaining two units of the Sherco plant in Becker by 2030, the Allen S. King plant in Oak Park Heights in 2028 and the Boswell plant in Cohasset by 2035.

Those plants' owners, Xcel Energy and Minnesota Power, have both pledged to stop burning coal and replace it with new wind, solar and battery storage, along with natural gas and nuclear energy.

Under state law, Minnesota utilities are required to provide carbon-free electricity by 2040.

Business and Economic News

Environmental News

Politics and Government News

NewsPartners

Homepage

Getting to Green: Minnesota's energy future

Kirsti Marohn

Author

Electricity customers in 15 Midwest states, including Minnesota, might bear the costs of continuing to operate a Michigan coal plant. A week before it was scheduled to shut down, the U.S. Department of Energy ordered it to keep running, citing a possible electricity shortage.

Trump orders some U.S. coal plants to keep operating. Will Minnesotans foot part of the bill?

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox