A Victory for Power and Principle: Trump Stops Coal Plant Closure
David Manney-Opinion : May 29, 2025
PJ Media
...Never mind that the grid wasn't ready. Never mind that no comparable baseload capacity was online to replace what the plant provided. The Trump administration recognized a truth too many ignore: energy reliability isn't a partisan issue. It's a moral one. It's immoral to leave citizens vulnerable to blackouts in the name of political vanity. The decision to invoke emergency powers wasn't about coal; it was about courage...
[PJMedia.com] It was supposed to be just another campaign stop in Michigan. (Screengrab image: via Consumers Energy /YouTube)
But on April 29, Donald Trump did something most politicians wouldn't dare: he made a decision rooted not in optics but in obligation.
In West Olive,Michigan,with less than a month to go before the scheduled closure of the J.H. Campbell coal plant, the Trump administration ordered it to stay open.
Not indefinitely. Just long enough to keep the grid from teetering, to stop utility bills from surging, and to keep nearly one million Michiganders from facing a blackout in the sweltering summer months.
To the mainstream press, it was environmental heresy.
But to families who rely on affordable and consistent electricity, it was leadership.
Real, grounded, not-up-for-debate leadership.
Emergency Powers for an Emergency the Left Pretended Didn't Exist
Using Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act isn't some obscure loophole. It's a legal instrument designed for precisely this kind of moment, a looming threat to grid stability.
And while it's rare, it's not unprecedented. Presidents have invoked it before: after natural disasters, during energy shortfalls, and in times when the nation's electrical backbone needed reinforcement.
So why the outrage?
Because this time, the crisis wasn't caused by war or weather. It was self-inflicted.
The J.H. Campbell plant was being shut down not because it broke but because ideologues decided it had served its purpose.
Consumers Energy had its closure plan rubber-stamped years ago by regulators eager to burnish their green credentials.
Never mind that the grid wasn't ready.
Never mind that no comparable baseload capacity was online to replace what the plant provided.
The Trump administration recognized a truth too many ignore: energy reliability isn't a partisan issue.
It's a moral one.
It's immoral to leave citizens vulnerable to blackouts in the name of political vanity.
The decision to invoke emergency powers wasn't about coal; it was about courage.
The Left's Unrelenting Tantrum
The moment the order hit the wires, leftist outlets and green lobbying groups erupted. Planet Detroit warned of pollution and rising mortality. Canary Media wailed about betrayal. ABC News, parroting activists, claimed Trump was "defying" Michigan's energy future. Their response wasn't just swift; it was unhinged.
What they failed to mention is that MISO, the grid operator, admitted there was elevated risk this summer. They acknowledged, in their reliability assessment, that generation reserves would be tight during periods of high demand.
But that part never made it into the headlines.
Instead, the national press focused on carbon emissions, asthma rates, and speculative "climate damage."
They ignored the working mom whose window unit AC keeps her toddler from overheating.
They ignored the diabetic grandfather, whose insulin depends on refrigeration. These aren't climate hypotheticals.
They're real people. People on the left routinely pretend to protect until those people need reliable power.
It wasn't a tantrum about pollution. It was a tantrum about control.
And Trump refused to let them have it.
The Real Cost of Green Absolutism
We're told endlessly that fossil fuels are a bygone chapter. That the future is solar panels, wind farms, and good intentions.
But here's the reality they don't want you to hear: the infrastructure for that vision doesn't exist, not yet. And pretending otherwise is dangerous.
The left's climate absolutism has turned energy policy into a purity test. Either you're for "100 percent renewable," or you're branded a science-denier. They forget that genuine science understands limits, acknowledges trade-offs, and adapts.
Let's remember Texas in 2021. Wind generation stalled during a freeze. Solar was useless under the snow.
The grid buckled. Dozens died.
That's not climate denial.
That's the consequence of pretending that weather-dependent energy can carry an entire population during extreme conditions.
The same forces were at play in Michigan.
Trump saw it coming.
The left denied it was even possible.
It's not just ideological.
It's lethal.
When Leadership Means Telling the Experts 'No'
For decades, America has operated under the illusion that bureaucrats and think tanks know better than the people living with the consequences.
The "experts" at federal energy agencies, Ivy League institutions, and climate summits assured us that shuttering coal plants was safe, even smart. That energy shortages were relics of the past.
They were wrong. But worse, they were smug about it.
Trump did what few politicians dare anymore: He said no.
No to the false consensus.
No to the models that never deliver.
No to the charade that you can replace 24/7 baseload power with windmills and wishful thinking.
Like Reagan firing the air traffic controllers or Truman standing by the Marshall Plan despite opposition, this was a leader refusing to flinch.
It may not be fashionable, but it was right... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here
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