The U.S. Department of Energy renewed an emergency order this week directing the state's last coal power plant to remain available for operation, continuing a legal fight between the Trump administration and state leaders.
The first emergency order was filed in December, just two weeks before the coal plant in Centralia had been scheduled to close, upending an agreement that had been over a decade old between power generation company TransAlta, the state, and climate and energy advocates, to close the facility at the end of 2025.
As justification, the emergency order cited a report commissioned by the region’s largest utilities that raised concern over the increasing, while still low, risk of rolling blackouts during extreme weather events like cold snaps.
While the region has seen large demand growth and slow development timelines for new energy resources, environmental advocates and the Washington attorney general’s office have blasted the emergency order and fervently denied that these issues justify Centralia's coal-fired electricity.
The order also flouts the state’s ban on utilities buying coal-fired electricity, which went into effect at the start of this year, under the state’s Clean Energy Transformation Act. The landmark climate law also calls for utilities to become greenhouse gas “neutral” by 2030 and have emission-free electricity by 2045 or risk steep fines.
Spokespeople for both the state attorney general's office and Earthjustice said they intend to file another set of administrative appeals over the newly issued emergency order.
In January, the Washington state attorney general’s office and environmental advocates filed their original appeals over the first emergency order. After the DOE denied those, both parties petitioned the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for review.
The state attorney general also filed a lawsuit this month in U.S. District Court alleging that the DOE violated the Freedom of Information Act by withholding records related to the emergency order.
Washington isn't the only place experiencing this political and legal fight. Since last year, DOE has used the Federal Power Act to extend the life of fossil fuel plants that were about to close, including the one in Centralia, as well as others in Pennsylvania, Indiana and Michigan.
Despite the emergency order, data on the plant's grid operator indicates the Centralia facility has not burned coal for electricity since December. According to the facility's owner TransAlta, the facility is currently offline" though "employees remain on standby to support operations if needed.
The facility is also still preparing to convert to using natural gas, which had been announced last year, and TransAlta said it hopes to be back up and running with the new fuel source in 2028.
As an extra measure, Washington lawmakers passed legislation this month that would make generating coal-fired electricity in the state prohibitively expensive, according to the Washington State Standard.
The legislation removes tax and regulatory exemptions that applied to the facility and were previously part of the agreement to eventually shut down the plant. The bill ensures that if the plant were to generate coal-fired electricity, TransAlta would have to pay sales tax on coal deliveries and also purchase carbon allowances to cover its pollution through the state's carbon market, according to the Standard.
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