The J.H. Campbell coal plant was slated to close in May 2025, but the federal government has kept it open. Consumers Energy said it costs $600,000 a day to keep it running. That cost may be passed on to ratepayers across the region.
Photographer: Sylvia Jarrus/Bloomberg
Cost of Trump’s Coal Push Plays Out in Dollars, Noise and Health
J.H. Campbell, a coal plant in Michigan, was slated to close, but the federal government is keeping it open.
Chad Schmucker, 71, lives in Port Sheldon Township on the east shore of Lake Michigan, an area where dunes meet forest and water draws boaters in summer. It would be his dream retirement spot except that it’s just south of the J.H. Campbell coal plant, which spews pollutants and makes so much noise that at times his wife can’t sleep.
Summer brings the sound of tractors pushing coal, the mechanical churn carrying across the shoreline. Then there’s the grit. When the machines shove coal into new mounds, “all sorts of clouds of dust go off of it,” said Elisabeth Mims, 41, who lives in the shadow of the plant.