The United States Department of Energy on Monday extended an emergency order keeping an aging coal plant in Craig open beyond its initial retirement date.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright first issued an emergency order on Dec. 30 — one day before Craig Station’s Unit 1 plant in Moffat County was scheduled to close — under section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, which allows the Energy Department to keep power plants running during times of crisis, such as war or energy shortages.
The order forced the plant to remain operational through March 30, with Wright citing an energy “emergency” in the West due to a “shortage of electric energy, a shortage of facilities for the generation of electric energy and other causes.”
While those orders last 90 days, the Energy Department has the power to extend orders indefinitely until it deems the energy emergency to be over. Wright’s extension keeps the Craig station operating through at least June 28, writing in his decision on Monday that the “accelerated retirement” of power plants “could lead to the loss of power to homes and businesses in the areas that may be affected by curtailments or power outages, presenting a risk to public health and safety.”
Leslie Coleman, senior attorney with Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain Office, blasted the decision in a statement.
“The Trump administration has doubled down on an order that no one seems to want except the coal industry,” Coleman said. “Craig’s co-owners have had to pour money into this aging and unreliable unit to keep it available, and those costs are likely to be passed on to Coloradans. It is time for the administration to stand down and allow this unit to retire as utilities and state regulators had long planned.”
In addition to Colorado, the Trump administration has used claims of an energy emergency to keep open coal plants that were slated for retirement in Michigan, Washington and Indiana, as well as an oil plant in Pennsylvania.
Earlier this month, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and a coalition of environmental groups filed separate lawsuits against the Energy Department, in which they claim the department is illegally abusing its authority under the Federal Power Act.
“There is no energy emergency, and stopping the Craig unit’s retirement would not ease any imagined energy need,” Weiser said in a March 18 press release announcing his lawsuit. “Left unchallenged, the Energy Department’s order will result in unnecessary costs passed onto Coloradans in higher electric bills and more pollution in the region.”
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and the Platte River Power Authority, which co-own Craig Station Unit 1, also oppose keeping the plant running.
The more than 40-year-old plant was already shut down in December due to a valve failure when it was ordered to stay online. The unit’s owners in January asked the Energy Department to reverse its initial order, saying that their customers will “bear the full cost of complying.”
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association is planning to shutter Craig Station’s other two coal-fired plants in 2028.