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Three coal units in Indiana — Culley 2, Schahfer 17, and Schahfer 18 — were scheduled to retire at the end of 2025 but the U.S. Department of Energy issued two orders requiring the units to continue operating beyond their planned retirement dates. This report details concerns based on both cost and environmental impact.

Thom Cmar, Deputing Managing Attorney, Midwest Regional Office: “The health benefits of fewer incidences of cancer, cardiovascular disease, less exposure to children of harmful levels of lead — those benefits far exceed the costs to the industry.”

Michael Hiatt, Attorney, Rocky Mountain Office: “Propping up uneconomic coal plants, propping up the coal industry — while simultaneously taking efforts to stymie wind development, solar development — that’s going to impair grid reliability.”

DOE’s order disrupts a long-planned shutdown of a coal plant in Centralia, Washington, designed to provide state residents with cleaner air and affordable, reliable, clean energy

On behalf of public interest groups, Earthjustice challenged the Department of Energy’s (DOE) illegal order forcing Washington’s last coal plant to operate past its planned retirement date. The groups’ request for rehearing was filed with DOE in response to the 90-day order issued Dec. 16, just two weeks before TransAlta’s last coal-burning unit was legally required to shut down on Dec. 31.

Thom Cmar, Deputing Managing Attorney, Midwest Regional Office: “It’ll cost all of us in the long run because it will encourage more expensive, dirty coal plants to continue operating for longer and it will mean more arsenic, mercury and lead in our waterways.”

The Trump administration is falsely invoking emergency powers to resurrect coal-fired power.

Trump administration continues to undermine Colorado’s efforts to turn the page on coal

Lisa Evans, Senior Counsel, Clean Energy Program: “EPA never reviewed these demonstrations. If they did, I am confident that they would likely find that each of the plants are ineligible for an extension.”

Mychal Ozaeta, Attorney, Clean Energy Program: “These 13 are the most dangerous coal ash ponds in the U.S. because they’re leaking. They’ve been doing so for decades.”

Emergency order will force Craig Unit 1 to remain available beyond December retirement date

This report analyzes the cost of a U.S. Department of Energy mandate that Unit 1 at the Craig coal-burning power plant in Colorado remain available and operate beyond its December 31, 2025, retirement date.

Electricity rates are set to skyrocket, fueled by the Trump administration’s war on cheaper clean energy and push for expensive fossil fuels.

EPA issues rule to allow ongoing release of toxic chemicals into sources of drinking water for more than 30 million Americans

The Trump administration delivers coal for the holidays and higher electricity bills

Public advocacy groups ask the court to end the Trump administration’s sham emergency orders

Public advocacy groups, led by the Sierra Club and Earthjustice, filed an appellate brief with the U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to ask the court to set aside the Department of Energy’s unlawful orders for the J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant in Michigan.

After nearly 15 years of planning, the plant had been scheduled to shut down Dec. 31