Colorado sued the U.S. Department of Energy in federal court Wednesday for using emergency orders to keep the Craig Unit 1 coal power plant open past the long-planned closing date of Dec. 31.
Attorney General Phil Weiser’s suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit asks judges to declare the emergency order unlawful and set it aside, after the Energy Department rejected an administrative appeal from Colorado asking for the same relief.
“The long-anticipated retirement of Craig Unit 1 and replacing it with cleaner and more affordable energy resources was the result of a carefully planned process that was driven by economics,” Weiser said, in a press release accompanying the petition filing in Washington, D.C. “There is no energy emergency, and stopping the Craig unit’s retirement would not ease any imagined energy need.”
Keeping the coal plant burning against the wishes of Tri-State and a co-owner imposes unnecessary costs on Colorado electricity customers and extends coal’s outsize pollution in the region, according to the lawsuit. Colorado is relying on the closures of the state’s six remaining coal-fired units by 2030 to meet climate change and clean air goals, while federal officials have not helped Tri-State identify how to pay up to $80 million it might cost to keep Craig open through 2026.
Federal officials have issued similar orders to coal plants around the nation, citing stresses on the power grid and growing demand from the explosion of data center building and AI power use. The order to keep Craig 1 open came Dec. 30.
The plant was closed for repairs at the time, and Tri-State had not planned to reopen it before mothballing the unit as part of its long term energy supply plans. Like other Colorado utilities, the Tri-State co-op is replacing coal power with cleaner burning natural gas units and renewable energy sources like solar farms and wind turbines.
The initial Energy Department order applied for 90 days through March 30. It’s unclear if the Trump administration will extend the order deeper into 2026.
Weiser’s office has sued the Trump administration over multiple budget rescissions and agency orders, in many cases citing political retribution against Colorado’s dominant Democratic establishment as the real — and illegal — reasons for the federal actions.
“ The order is an unlawful abuse of the department’s emergency authority and should be rescinded,” Weiser said.