** Memo highlighting challenges facing Trump’s Michigan coal plant bailout disappears from Department of Energy website  ([link removed])
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By Dave Anderson on Jun 06, 2025 10:30 am
A Department of Energy memorandum identified significant logistical challenges facing the Trump administration’s last-minute order to prevent the closure of the J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant in Michigan.

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright issued the order ([link removed]) on May 23, just eight days before the plant was scheduled to shut down on May 31st. Wright’s order invokes wartime powers typically reserved ([link removed]) for temporary electric grid emergencies related to extreme weather, but Michigan’s top state utility regulator says ([link removed]) no energy emergency exists to warrant the order.

The DOE memo ([link removed]) was also dated May 23 and marked as privileged and Controlled Unclassified Information, or CUI. The memo identifies “SENSITIVITIES” and makes clear the “challenges” the plant’s owner Consumers Energy may face if forced by Wright to reverse course on the closure after years of preparations and planning:

Past the planned retirement date of May 31, Consumers has ended its contracts for coal procurement, coal delivery, and power plant staffing and may face challenges with addressing these issues on short notice. The order provides reasonable last-minute contract extensions for fuel and operations, if feasible.

The memo was addressed to Wright and from Alex Fitzsimmons, a Trump DOE political appointee who previously held jobs at organizations funded by one of the power plant’s coal suppliers. Fitzsimmons recommended in the memo that Wright approve the order.

Fitzsimmons’ memo was initially posted publicly on DOE’s website, but the link ([link removed]) where the memo was previously found now leads to a “Page not found” message. The existence of the memo was mentioned ([link removed]) last week by the local news site Hollander.News.

Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program, said ([link removed]) Wright’s order “serves no purpose beyond attempting to prop up the dying coal industry.”

“We currently produce more energy in Michigan than needed,” Michigan Public Service Commission Chair Dan Scripps said ([link removed]) . “The unnecessary recent order from the U.S. Department of Energy will increase the cost of power for homes and businesses across the Midwest.”

The cost of procuring additional coal and keeping the plant open will fall on customers of Consumers Energy and other utilities ([link removed]) located within the 15-state Midwest Independent System Operator regional power grid, which the J.H. Campbell plant is connected to. Consumers Energy previously estimated the plant’s closure would save its customers in Michigan $600 million ([link removed]) . Wright’s order expires on August 21, meaning the plant could still close soon unless the order is extended.

The latest fuel receipt data available from the Energy Information Administration ([link removed]) identifies the North Antelope Rochelle and Black Thunder coal mines in Wyoming as suppliers of coal for the power plant. The Black Thunder Mine is owned by Core Natural Resources, the fossil fuel company formed by the merger ([link removed]) of Arch Coal and CONSOL Energy.

The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis reports ([link removed]) that Peabody Energy provided 1.47 million tons of coal to the J.H. Campbell plant last year. Peabody Energy told the Cowboy State News ([link removed]) in Wyoming last week that it supplies coal to other plants in Michigan, but not to the J.H. Campbell plant.

After Wright signed the J.H. Campbell order last month, Peabody Energy called ([link removed]) for further action to “halt coal plant retirements, use existing plants at higher utilization and restart shuttered coal plants.”

James Grech, the CEO of Peabody Energy, attended ([link removed]) the White House ceremony in April where Trump signed an executive order ([link removed]) commanding Wright to use DOE’s emergency powers under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act to prevent the closure of coal plants. Peabody Energy and Core Natural Resources’ stock value jumped ([link removed]) after Trump signed the executive order, along with several others benefiting the coal industry.

The National Mining Association (NMA) praised Wright’s J.H. Campbell order in a post on the website of its Count on Coal campaign ([link removed]) and in a video ([link removed]) . NMA reported lobbying ([link removed]) the White House and DOE on the use of Federal Power Act authorities earlier this year. Paul Lang, the CEO of Core Natural Resources, is currently the chairman ([link removed]) of NMA’s board of directors.

Wright signed another Section 202(c) order late last week to prevent the closure of the Eddystone gas plant in Pennsylvania, in another move opposed by environmental groups like the Sierra Club ([link removed]) , which warned it would hurt everyday utility customers.


** Trump political appointee Alex Fitzsimmons, who previously worked for organizations funded by Peabody Energy, recommended Chris Wright issue the order
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Fitzsimmons was tapped last month to lead ([link removed]) DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) after serving as Wright’s chief of staff ([link removed]) since January.

Fitzsimmons previously served as a political appointee in DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy during Trump’s first term as president. In between Trump’s terms in the White House, Fitzsimmons worked for an energy storage company and for ClearPath, a conservative group that’s supportive of clean energy but holds a favorable view of fossil fuels.

Fitzsimmons worked on energy policy for the Institute for Energy Research (IER) and its lobbying arm the American Energy Alliance (AEA) from January 2013 to April 2014 and again from November 2014 to January 2017.

At IER/AEA, Fitzsimmons was part of a long-running campaign ([link removed]) by right-wing groups aligned with the fossil fuel industry to roll back state renewable energy standards ([link removed]) that have helped power the growth of wind and solar power.

“Launched an in-house ghostwriting shop that crafts, pitches, and places op-eds on behalf of partner organizations,” Fitzsimmons said of his work for IER/AEA on a resume ([link removed]) obtained from DOE by American Oversight.

In 2016, Peabody Energy had to disclose it paid $50,000 to IER ([link removed]) over the previous two years. The disclosure came in Peabody Energy’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, where the coal producer also had to reveal its funding of multiple climate change denial and anti-clean energy groups ([link removed]) .

Peabody Energy also listed AEA as a creditor ([link removed]) in its bankruptcy case.

Fitzsimmons spent eight months in 2014 at the corporate public relations firm Berman & Company, where he worked with a front group called the Environmental Policy Alliance ([link removed]) that attacked environmental conservation groups like Trout Unlimited ([link removed]) . Peabody Energy later listed Berman & Company as a creditor in its bankruptcy.

Fitzsimmons also worked for a year and a half in 2016-2017 as the Director of Communications for the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce’s pro-fossil fuels Fueling U.S. Forward campaign. Fitzsimmons described the experience on his resume ([link removed]) :

As the first hire for a multi-million dollar energy-advocacy campaign funded by Koch Industries and led by former AFPM President Charles Drevna, I managed the public launch of the organization in 2016 and am responsible for developing and executing the communications and digital-media strategy.

Koch Industries is the petrochemical company helmed by billionaire conservative megadonor Charles Koch. AFPM is the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers. Wright was an outspoken member of Koch’s network of political donors ([link removed]) before he was tapped to become Trump’s Energy Secretary in November.

AEA endorsed Trump ([link removed]) for president during the 2016 election. After Trump won, he also picked several of Fitzsimmons’ former IER colleagues ([link removed]) to serve on his presidential transition team and as DOE political appointees during his first term. Among them was Travis Fisher ([link removed]) , who co-authored a DOE grid study that Trump’s first Secretary of Energy Rick Perry used as a pretense for a failed 2017 proposal ([link removed]) to bail out struggling coal and nuclear plants. Perry’s proposal would have cost consumers billions of dollars if it hadn’t been rejected by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
([link removed]) .

Perry spoke openly ([link removed]) in 2017 about the administration’s “very classified” conversations about using national security as a pretext for preempting state climate change and clean energy policies. In January, Trump declared a national energy emergency and cited what he called “dangerous State and local policies [that] jeopardize our Nation’s core national defense and security needs” in an executive order ([link removed]) signed on the first day of his second term.

In April, seven Republican state lawmakers from Michigan signed a letter ([link removed]) to the Trump administration attributing the J.H. Campbell plant’s closure to the 100 percent clean electricity by 2040 law enacted by Michigan in 2023. Consumers Energy first announced plans to phase out its use of coal in 2018 ([link removed]) , and the Michigan Public Service Commission later approved ([link removed]) a multi-party agreement to close the J.H. Campbell plant by 2025 and invest in cleaner sources of electricity like solar and energy storage.

“This administration will not sit back and allow dangerous energy subtraction policies threaten the resiliency of our grid and raise electricity prices on American families,” Wright said ([link removed]) in a DOE press release last month announcing the order to keep the J.H. Campbell plant running until August.

IER published a post ([link removed]) this week highlighting Wright’s order as “contrary” to Michigan’s clean electricity law and “Consumers Energy’s plans to remove coal entirely from its fleet by closing the Campbell plant.”


** Trump’s executive order revamps a failed first-term attempt to use Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act to bail out coal-fired power plants for the benefit of top donors
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In 2018, a leaked memorandum ([link removed]) revealed the Trump administration was considering using Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act and the Defense Production Act to bail out coal plants struggling to compete with cheaper and cleaner forms of electricity. Trump abandoned that first-term effort amid concerns from advisors like Larry Kudlow ([link removed]) that the public would view the move as a bailout.

The electric utility FirstEnergy later admitted to federal prosecutors that it secretlypaid $5 million in 2017 to America First Policies ([link removed]) , a group formed by Trump insiders to support Trump’s agenda, as it lobbied the Trump administration for a Section 202(c) bailout for its coal and nuclear power plants.

FirstEnergy was joined in the push by coal producers Murray Energy, which contributed $1 million ([link removed]) to the pro-Trump Super PAC America First Action in 2017, and Alliance Resource Partners.

Joe Craft, the CEO of Alliance Alliance Resource Partners, attended Trump’s pro-coal executive order signing ceremony ([link removed]) in April. Craft contributed $1 million ([link removed]) to Elon Musk’s pro-Trump America PAC last year.

Murray Energy and FirstEnergy’s power generation subsidiary declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy during Trump’s first term as president.

Top photo: Trump signs excutive orders supporting the coal industry from the White House Flickr photostream ([link removed]) . United States government work ([link removed]) license.

The post Memo highlighting challenges facing Trump’s Michigan coal plant bailout disappears from Department of Energy website ([link removed]) appeared first on Energy and Policy Institute ([link removed]) .
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