*

US extends order to keep coal plant open through

mid-November

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Owner of plant says order already has cost tens of

millions of

dollars

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Homeowners, businesses could foot the bill

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Move is latest by Trump administration to support fossil

fuels

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Energy

Department on Thursday extended an order for a Michigan coal

plant to stay open through November 19, even though it had been

planning to shut permanently for economic reasons and complying

with the original order has already cost the company tens

of millions of dollars.

In May, the Energy Department issued the original order,

normally reserved for natural disasters, for the 1,500 megawatt

J.H. Campbell plant in West Olive, Michigan to stay open. The

order came a week before Consumers Energy, the majority owner of

the plant, planned to shut and after it had depleted its coal

stockpile and reassigned staff.

Thursday's order is the latest in a string of U.S. moves to

support fossil fuels, after President Donald Trump declared an

energy emergency on the first day of his second term. In April,

he signed executive orders aiming to boost coal production, in

one of a series of actions that run counter to global efforts to

curb carbon emissions, saying the administration was "going to

put the miners back to work."

Chris Wright, the U.S. energy secretary, said the order

"will help ensure millions of Americans can continue to access

affordable, reliable, and secure baseload power regardless of

whether the wind is blowing or the sun is shining."

Trump claims that rapid adoption of solar and wind power has

made U.S. electricity unstable and expensive, justifying his bid

to end most subsidies for them. But reliability has improved in

Texas, the U.S. grid with the most renewable energy, according

to regulatory filings and price data reviewed by Reuters.

Consumers Energy said in a financial filing that staying

open cost $29 million over the first 38 days since the first

order.

A report commissioned by environmental groups said this

month that keeping Campbell open would cost $279 million

annually. It said if the U.S. mandates keeping open fossil fuel

plants that had been slated to retire by the end of 2028, it

could cost $3 billion or more per year. The costs, it said,

would be distributed across homeowners and businesses that pay

power bills in all regions but the U.S. Northeast.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruled last week

that the costs for keeping Campbell open could be spread across

10 states across the Midwest.

Consumers Energy spokesperson Brian Wheeler said the company

expects to continue operating the plant as required. Consumers

was pleased that FERC approved its request to recover costs by

allocating them across the region, Wheeler said.