Seven fossil-fueled power plants — six of them coal-fired — are running under U.S. Department of Energy emergency orders that block their retirement, and the running cost has reached roughly $552 million as of Sept. 14, according to a Sierra Club tally.

The first order landed in May 2025, days before Consumers Energy's J.H. Campbell plant on the shores of Lake Michigan was due to retire. The orders kept coming. State regulators, utilities and grid operators had already deemed these facilities unnecessary and had spent years planning their retirement. Some units are broken or have sat idle since the orders took effect because the grid does not need their output.

The practice has a limited shelf life legally. On Sept. 11, a federal court ruled that the DOE acted outside its legal authority when it forced J.H. Campbell — a more than 60-year-old plant — to keep running. The decision covers only the May 2025 Campbell order, not the subsequent ones. The DOE can seek a rehearing or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The plant continues to operate for now.

Eddystone, Pennsylvania. The second order, also issued in May 2025, covers oil- and gas-fired units installed in the late 1960s. Owner Constellation Energy says the facility has run infrequently since last year but contributed to grid reliability, WEKU reported in July 2026. Environmental groups have sued the DOE over the order. In Kentucky, a utility and the state's Republican attorney general are taking federal energy regulators to court, arguing Kentucky customers should not bear the cost of keeping the Pennsylvania plant online.

R.M. Schahfer, Indiana. By the time the DOE ordered the roughly 50-year-old plant to keep running in December 2025, it was already half-broken. Filings by owner Northern Indiana Public Service Co. put the cost of repairing the failed unit and operating the plant at more than $1 billion through 2027. The plant went offline for repairs in February 2026, and NIPSCO said in May it likely will not run again until fall 2026 — meaning it cannot contribute to reliability even if needed. Environmental groups and the Democratic attorneys general of Minnesota and Illinois have challenged the order.

F.B. Culley, Indiana. CenterPoint Energy calls Culley Unit 2 its "smallest and most inefficient coal unit." The DOE ordered it to stay open in December 2025 anyway. In February, the company asked the administration not to renew the order, describing the unit as unreliable and unnecessary for grid reliability. The DOE renewed it regardless.

Centralia, Washington. TransAlta's more than 50-year-old plant was slated for a retrofit to burn gas before the December 2025 order. TransAlta says it remains committed to that plan but is seeking tens of millions of dollars in reimbursement for costs incurred keeping the coal unit available — a demand frustrating regional utilities because the plant has sat idle since the order. Electric customers may pay either way. Washington's Democratic attorney general and environmental groups have challenged the orders in court, and the governor signed legislation imposing hefty costs on TransAlta if Centralia restarts.

Craig, Colorado. Colorado utilities planned for roughly a decade to retire Craig Unit 1 at the end of 2025. In February 2026, two co-owning cooperative utilities petitioned the DOE to reconsider, arguing members would bear unnecessary costs. The agency has not relented. Owners have already paid to repair a faulty valve that took the plant offline in December 2025, and some estimates project a year of operation beyond the retirement date could cost up to $150 million. Environmental groups and Colorado's attorney general have filed challenges.

Stanton, Florida. Unit 1 received its order in June 2026. The Environmental Defense Fund estimates propping up the nearly 40-year-old plant could add an average of $21 to monthly electric bills if costs fall solely on customers of the Orlando Utilities Commission, the municipal owner. Environmental groups have sued to overturn the order.

More than 20 coal-burning units remain slated to close before the end of Trump's term, federal data show. The next retirements are due this December at Colorado's Comanche plant and Minnesota's Sherburne County station, whose owner is building one of the nation's largest solar farms nearby as replacement capacity.

What happens next turns on two dates: whether the DOE appeals the Sept. 11 J.H. Campbell ruling, and whether the agency extends its stay-open campaign to the December retirements at Comanche and Sherburne County.