{"id":437667,"date":"2026-01-29T22:29:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T22:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/437667\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T22:29:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T22:29:16","slug":"colorado-ag-environmental-groups-challenge-federal-order-to-keep-coal-burning-power-plant-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/437667\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado AG, environmental groups challenge federal order to keep coal-burning power plant open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and a coalition of six environmental groups on Wednesday challenged the U.S. Department of Energy to reconsider its emergency order that would keep open a broken coal-fired power plant<\/a> in Craig.<\/p>\n

The two petitions argue that there is no emergency surrounding Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association\u2019s plans to shutter its Unit 1 power plant in Craig and that the closure makes economic and environmental sense. The petitions ask the energy department to respond within 30 days and to hold a hearing on the order.<\/p>\n

Weiser called the emergency order<\/a>, signed by Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Dec. 30, government overreach, saying there is no evidence of an energy emergency that would require keeping the plant open.<\/p>\n

The environmental groups said they are prepared to file a lawsuit if the department does not respond to their petition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe federal government has manufactured a fake emergency to revive a coal plant that was literally broken at the time DOE claimed the plant is needed,\u201d Margaret Kran-Annexstein, Colorado Sierra Club director, said in a news release. \u201cThis order is out of touch with the basic needs of Coloradans struggling with high energy bills and with communities facing one of the warmest winters on record. Trump\u2019s actions benefit coal executives at the expense of everyday people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The environmental groups argued that retiring Unit 1 is economically and environmentally beneficial to Colorado and does not pose a risk to the electrical system\u2019s reliability.<\/p>\n

Mark Stutz, a Tri-State spokesman, said the company learned of the petitions Wednesday and was not prepared to comment on them.<\/p>\n

Wright signed the emergency order<\/a> one day before Tri-State<\/a> planned to shutter Unit 1. The Trump administration has issued similar emergency orders for coal-burning power plants in Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania as part of its ongoing push to boost fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

The order put Tri-State in a bind to figure out how to comply after years of planning to close the 45-year-old plant. Unit 1 malfunctioned on Dec. 19 and was already out of service, and will need expensive repairs before it can be brought back online.<\/p>\n

Tri-State had expected the emergency order and had not let go of any employees ahead of the planned closure date. The electric cooperative did not anticipate needing to buy more coal in the immediate future.<\/p>\n

Coal and other fossil fuels release greenhouse gases that trap heat close to the Earth and cause global warming. Colorado is trying to eliminate almost all of its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and leaders have pushed the closure of coal-burning power plants as a step toward achieving that goal.<\/p>\n

Burning fossil fuels also harms human health and creates smog that clouds views from Colorado\u2019s beloved mountains.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency rejected Colorado\u2019s regional haze plan<\/a>, which was designed to reduce smog at Rocky Mountain National Park, because it called for the closure of coal plants, and the EPA determined that was not allowed under the Clean Air Act.\u00a0Environmental groups also have vowed to fight that decision.<\/p>\n

Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and a coalition of six environmental groups on Wednesday challenged the U.S. Department…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[11455,6395,28,3500,36270,1687,4253,27982,3832,206726,9045,170919,106314,1871,1872,192,2286,6733,2420,97,2558,186001,22942,3,118685,111,47198,79,22021,178829,99315,25044],"class_list":["post-437667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-air-pollution","tag-air-quality","tag-business","tag-chris-wright","tag-clean-air-act","tag-climate","tag-climate-change","tag-coal","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-attorney-general","tag-colorado-news","tag-craig","tag-electric","tag-emissions","tag-energy","tag-environment","tag-environmental-protection-agency","tag-global-warming","tag-government","tag-health","tag-latest-headlines","tag-moffat-county","tag-national-politics","tag-news","tag-phil-weiser","tag-politics","tag-rocky-mountain-national-park","tag-science","tag-sierra-club","tag-tri-state-generation-and-transmission","tag-u-s-department-of-energy","tag-western-slope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}