Trump order to keep Michigan power plant open costs taxpayers $113m

[groundloop]

Source: The Guardian

Trump administration orders to keep an ageing, unneeded Michigan coal-fired power plant online has cost ratepayers from across the US midwest about $113m so far, according to estimates from the plant’s operator and regulators.

Still, the US energy department last week ordered the plant to remain open for another 90 days.

The Trump administration in May ordered utility giant Consumers Energy to keep the 63-year-old JH Campbell coal plant in western Michigan, about 100 miles north-east of Chicago, online just as it was being retired.

[....]

Consumers Energy said it did not ask for Campbell to remain open. The Trump administration did not consult local regulators, a spokesperson for the Michigan public service commission (MPSC), which regulates utilities and manages the state’s grid, told the Guardian in May.


Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/28/trump-michigan-power-plant

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This is costing customers $615,000 per day, but most certainly padding the pockets of some coal executives.

[keep_left]

1. As usual, Trump's logic is entirely inscrutable, as is his fascination...

...with returning the nation to the days of coal-fired power plants. Here's a clip from the David Pakman show. Trump is interviewed by the execrable Maria Bartiromo on her Sunday show for Fox "News". (See 0:35-1:57).

Trump: "We don't want windmills, we don't want solar--we're doing coal!"

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[twodogsbarking]

2. Steam powered air craft carriers are next.