The owners of a Colorado coal plant are challenging a Department of Energy order directing them to run a turbine past its December 2025 retirement date, saying it violates their constitutional rights and will drive up electricity prices for consumers.
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and Platte River Power Authority formally requested a rehearing of the DOE order issued Dec. 30 that directed a coal turbine at the Craig Generating Station to stay open for 90 days.
The request submitted last week sets the stage for a potential court challenge and makes the plant owners the first energy companies to push back against a half-dozen emergency orders issued by the Trump administration last year.
DOE said at the time that the order was needed to ensure reliable electricity supplies in the western United States. The plant’s owners disagreed, writing in their petition for a rehearing, “The Order’s asserted emergency is no such emergency.”
