D.C. Circuit Campbell Ruling: What It Means for NIPSCO Schahfer Costs

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled unanimously Friday that the Department of Energy exceeded its authority under the Federal Power Act when it forced Consumers Energy's J.H. Campbell coal plant in Michigan to stay open past its scheduled May 2025 retirement. The court found, in Judge Cornelia Pillard's words, "no emergency within the meaning" of the statute.

That ruling is now the leading appellate precedent directly on point for the parallel April 2026 legal challenges targeting NIPSCO's Schahfer Units 17 and 18 and CenterPoint's Culley Unit 2 in Indiana. Whether it formally binds those cases depends on venue and procedural posture, but no court reviewing DOE's Section 202(c) authority can now ignore Pillard's reasoning.

Here is the operational reality that makes this worse than most people realize. CenterPoint reported to DOE that Culley Unit 2 was fully available for only five of its first 48 days under the emergency order, and MISO never called on it during those five days. NIPSCO's public MISO outage disclosures indicate both Schahfer units were expected to be unavailable for most or all of the third 90-day order period. The DOE's reliability justification is undermined not just legally, but by the utilities' own reported numbers.

NIPSCO has already filed to recover $38 million from customers for just the first three months of forced Schahfer operation. The company previously estimated keeping Schahfer beyond 2025 could require more than one billion dollars in spending due to chronic mechanical failures on aging equipment. That figure dwarfs Michigan's $259 million price tag at Campbell, and it has received almost no public attention. Map how the fuel adjustment clause tracker flows those costs into your rate schedule before a retroactive cost-recovery proceeding at FERC or the IURC prices it for you.

For the fuel adjustment clause mechanics behind forced-operation cost recovery, see Fuel Adjustment Charges: What Indiana C&I Operators Need to Know About This Line Item on Your Electric Bill.