Federal Emergency Order Keeps Florida Coal Unit Running Past Planned 2025 Shutdown
Energy Secretary Chris Wright has invoked emergency authority to keep a Florida coal-fired plant running past its planned 2025 closure, overriding an Orlando Utilities Commission timetable tied to a 2050 net zero target. The directive took effect June 4 and runs through Sept. 1.
Wright pinned the intervention on what he described as an energy emergency in Florida, citing a shortage of generating facilities and rising load from a fast-growing data center industry in the state.
OUC said the order blocks its plan to move Stanton Energy Center Unit 1 into extended cold shutdown, and the utility pledged to comply while maintaining reliable service to customers. The unit had been earmarked for retirement this year as part of OUC's shift toward solar and other renewables on the way to net zero by 2050.
What happens after Sept. 1 is unsettled. The utility is also expected to decide the fate of its second coal plant before year-end, a choice that now lands in the middle of a federal push to slow coal retirements.
The Florida directive is not isolated. The Environmental Defense Fund says similar orders have landed in Colorado, Indiana, Michigan and Washington, reversing utility plans to wind down coal units. The group estimates that keeping Michigan's J.H. Campbell plant online since May 2025 has cost households and businesses more than $180 million.
OUC ranks as Florida's second-largest municipal utility, with more than 288,000 customers across Orange and Osceola counties.
Source: insideclimatenews.org (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink