On Friday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued a decree that a Michigan coal plant scheduled to shut down at the end of May must stay open, for at least 90 additional days. The order, following early April moves to prop up the coal industry and ostensibly the latest piece of the Trump administration’s efforts to address an entirely fake energy emergency, will literally kill people who don’t otherwise need to die.
“Today’s emergency order ensures that Michiganders and the greater Midwest region do not lose critical power generation capability as summer begins and electricity demand regularly reach high levels,” Wright said in a press release announcing the order to keep the J.H. Campbell plant running, completely ignoring the years-long process that led to the planned retirement. The plant’s owner, Consumers Energy, has repeatedly reassured the public along with grid operators that removing its 1,560 megawatts from the equation will not, in fact, cause any reliability issues.
“There is no existing energy emergency in either Michigan or MISO,” said Dan Scripps, chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission. And yet, here’s the know-nothing administration, hell bent on propping up the worst energy sources we have while kneecapping the best. More Wright: “This administration will not sit back and allow dangerous energy subtraction policies threaten the resiliency of our grid and raise electricity prices on American families.”
The move raises the bar on these emergency moves, in that changing policies to make drilling for oil and gas easier doesn’t necessarily convince the Exxons and Chevrons of the world that it would be profitable to do anything about it. This, however, is a specific action that has direct consequences. According to the Clean Air Task Force’s Toll From Coal dashboard, along with its nine million tons of CO2 the J.H. Campbell plant emits thousands of tons of sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxides every year. About 3,400 people live within three miles of the plant, and its emissions probably cause 455 asthma attacks per year, 18 heart attacks, 24 cases of acute bronchitis, 10 ER visits for asthma, four hospital admissions, and yes, 44 deaths.
So let’s do the math: a 90-day extension means just under a quarter of those events will happen in a period when this particular air would otherwise have been free of coal smoke. That’s 112 asthma attacks that don’t need to happen, four heart attacks, a couple of asthma ER visits, an extra hospital admission, and yes, between 10 and 11 dead people. For what? To prop up bullshit renewable energy culture war claims, to signal to fossil fuel executives whose side the government is on, to follow the Trumpian rule to always double down, even in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence.
“This blatant act of federal overreach—forcing the plant to stay online—is being imposed against the wishes of Michigan consumers, businesses, regulators, and elected leaders,” said the Sierra Club’s Michigan campaign organizer, Bryan Smigielski, in a statement. “Don’t be fooled: there is no ‘energy emergency’ here—just a payday for the coal industry that leaves us with higher bills and dirtier air.”
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