Grassroots Justice Group Challenges Trump Administration Order to Keep Florida Coal Plant Running

The Trump administration is facing a new legal challenge over an emergency order keeping a Florida coal-fired power plant, which had been scheduled for retirement, in operation.

The motion, filed by the Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club and Earthjustice, on behalf of Florida Rising, a grassroots group representing communities of color, asks the Department of Energy to reconsider the order, arguing it fails to show that an emergency actually exists. The groups also say the order exceeds the department’s statutory authority and violates the National Environmental Policy Act.

The Department of Energy issued the order in June. The Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) had planned to move one of two coal-fired plants at the Stanton Energy Center into a state of “extended cold shutdown” by the end of May, as part of a 2020 plan to transition to renewable energy and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. OUC said at the time of the emergency order that it would comply but declined to provide further comment for this article. It is the state’s second-largest municipal utility, serving more than 288,000 customers in Orange and Osceola counties.

“It’s a somewhat absurd idea that OUC needs to keep this plant operating,” said Bradley Marshall, senior attorney at Earthjustice. “We have some of the highest generation capacity reserves in the nation. Any kind of liability assessment generally puts Florida in the lowest category of priority, given how many power plants we already have in the state.”

The order attributed an energy emergency in Florida to a shortage of facilities and anticipated growing demand from a burgeoning data center industry in the state. It also noted a February cold snap that strained OUC’s resources and forecasts for an especially hot summer. The order took effect June 4 and remains in place through Sept. 1.

“The Energy Department remains proud of it’s [sic] emergency orders that have saved lives and prevented blackouts during periods of peak electricity demand,” according to a statement provided to Inside Climate News.

But the advocacy groups say the continued operation of the coal-fired plant will increase air pollution that is harmful to those living around the facility on the outskirts of Orlando. The groups also say keeping the plant running will lead to higher energy costs for Floridians, further burdening underserved communities that are especially vulnerable to hotter temperatures, rising seas and more damaging storms as the global climate warms.

“There is also an affordability crisis too in the state, including in regards to electricity bills,” Marshall said. “The idea that low-income communities should be paying more to keep this uneconomical plant online as some kind of backup power for the investor-owned utilities is kind of nuts.”

The Trump administration faces similar challenges in Colorado, Indiana, Michigan and Washington, where emergency orders also have reversed plans to wind down coal plants. Although the orders are issued under a law designed for temporary emergencies such as weather events, the Trump administration has repeatedly renewed them, the advocacy groups say.

The advocacy groups say OUC’s financial reports indicate that in recent years coal has been its most expensive fuel per megawatt-hour, costing more than natural gas or solar. OUC had planned to replace the coal-fired plant with natural gas and solar resources.

“What is really striking about this particular order from the DOE, in contrast to some of the others, is that there was no justifiable need,” said Adam Kurland, attorney for U.S. Clean Energy at the Environmental Defense Fund. “This is just a way of kowtowing to an industry that for all intents and purposes is failing to operate within the marketplace, because it is more expensive, and most customers do not want coal power in their homes. They prefer clean energy sources.”