ANOTHER ONE?! Trump Administration Issues 5th Extension of West Michigan Coal Plant, Costing Ratepayers More Than $642,000 a Day

Lansing, MI — The Trump administration’s repeated, forced extensions of the J.H. Campbell coal plant are sticking Michigan and Midwest ratepayers with roughly $642,680 in costs every day to keep an outdated coal plant running past its planned retirement date, a new disclosure shows. The forced operation has already cost at least $259 million after subtracting plant revenues, with Consumers Energy intending to charge ratepayers across the Midwest as household energy bills climb and extreme summer heat pushes cooling costs even higher. 

Campbell is one of the country’s worst greenhouse gas emitters. The plant reported toxic mercury emissions to the EPA in 2025, as statewide mercury pollution jumped more than 30 percent year over year, just as the Trump EPA weakened the federal mercury limits meant to protect Michigan families. Coal ash from Campbell and other sites across the state also continues to leach into groundwater after Trump’s EPA started rolling back coal ash protections, with nearly every Michigan plant showing unsafe contamination levels.

That pollution risk isn’t lost on voters. In West Michigan, where Campbell sits, a majority of residents say their bills have already climbed too high, and a majority say the plant should be shut down. National polling from Climate Power finds the same pattern holds statewide and beyond. More than 70% of voters are concerned about pollution’s effect on their communities’ health, and most place the blame on the federal government and corporations for failing to keep their air and water clean.

Meanwhile, U.S. Senate Republican candidate Mike Rogers continues to bank contributions from the same oil and gas industry driving Trump’s energy agenda. FEC filings show Rogers received more than $28,000 in Q2 alone from Big Oil, Gas, and Utilities interests, bringing his total to $140,000 so far this cycle, on top of $5 million a Texas oil tycoon has poured into a super PAC supporting his campaign. West MI Rep. Bill Huizenga has also benefited, raking in over $80,000 from Big Oil, Gas, and Utilities.

Climate Power Michigan Director Tom Lenard issued the following statement: 

“Michiganders are paying hundreds of millions more to keep a dirty, outdated coal plant running because Trump ordered it, and Mike Rogers and Bill Huizenga are cashing checks from the same industry cashing in on our pain. Families are getting sicker and poorer while polluters and their favorite candidates get richer. That’s not an energy policy, that’s a shakedown.”

EDF Action President David Kieve issued the following statement:  

“Electric bills hit their highest point ever in July and as Americans struggle with an energy burden driven by President Trump’s wrong-headed policies, Michiganders are being asked, repeatedly, to pay even more to prop up a fossilized coal-fired power plant,” said Kieve. “Keeping the J.H. Campbell plant open – which its owners would like to close – is costing ratepayers over $600,000 every single day the facility is forced to remain open. This can only be seen as Trump refusing to acknowledge reality: expensive, dirty, and unreliable power has lost out to cheaper and cleaner renewable energy. That Mike Rogers and Bill Huizenga are more vested in Trump’s charade than what Michiganders need speaks volumes.”

Michigan LCV Federal Government Affairs Director Bentley Johnson issued the following statement: 

“At a time when energy costs are skyrocketing, Donald Trump is forcing Michiganders to pay more to keep the outdated Campbell coal plant running, a move that costs $259 million to date,” said Bentley Johnson, federal government affairs director for Michigan LCV. “Consumers Energy has confirmed it is costing more than $640,000 every single day to keep Campbell open, and those costs are being passed on to Michigan customers. Michiganders need relief, not expensive executive overreach to prop up outdated fossil fuel plants.” 

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