D.C. Circuit vacates DOE's Campbell coal-plant emergency order; DOE seeks rehearing en banc

Opening

On September 11, 2026, a D.C. Circuit panel (Chief Judge Srinivasan and Judges Pillard and Wilkins; opinion by Pillard) vacated the Department of Energy order issued under section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, that kept Consumers Energy’s J.H. Campbell coal plant in Michigan running past its scheduled retirement. The court’s judgment: the petitions for review be granted and the order be vacated.

What the court held

The opinion reads the statute narrowly. The plain meaning of the text limits section 202(c) emergency authority to address an identified risk of a substantial energy supply shortfall that calls for immediate action. The court found that the circumstances DOE identified did not amount to a 202(c) emergency, and vacated rather than remanding: We vacate the Order. Because the court ruled on the statutory-authority question, it did not reach the petitioners’ other challenges.

What happened next

DOE and the Justice Department filed a petition for rehearing en banc or panel rehearing; it opens by arguing that the panel erred by vacating that order. No order on the petition appears in RECAP as of the docket’s last update.

Not bound here

• The ruling covers only the original Campbell order. The later renewal orders for Campbell, and the orders for the other plants held open under 202(c), are separate petitions; the opinion’s reasoning is precedent for them but it does not vacate them.
• A separate FERC proceeding on how Consumers Energy may recover the costs of the forced operation remains pending, per the opinion.
• The rehearing petition’s outcome is unknown. RECAP holds only what has been pulled from PACER; check the docket for an order on the petition.

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