U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said his department is working with utilities around the country to keep more coal plants slated for retirement open to help meet rising demand from data centers and other new large loads.

After DOE ignored their rehearing requests, opponents of its Federal Power Act order keeping the J.H. Campbell plant have appealed the issue to the courts.

The Michigan attorney general and a group of 10 NGOs have filed for rehearing of DOE's order to keep a coal plant running for this summer, while those parties and others debated the cost recovery filing Consumers Energy made at FERC.

Michigan utilities would have to provide more transparency on their spending to influence rate cases under regulations proposed by the attorney general.

Consumers Energy, which got more than a third of its power from coal in 2021, will stop coal-fired generation in 2025 under a revised integrated resource plan.

The Department of Energy’s lifeline to struggling nuclear generators appears unlikely to save the next three units scheduled to retire.