As of January 29, 2026, the owners of a Colorado power unit say the Department of Energy (DOE) violated their constitutional rights by ordering them to continue running a coal-fired generator they had been planning to retire for years. [1] In a request for clarification and rehearing, the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and the Platte River Power Authority stated that the order constitutes both a “physical taking and a regulatory taking” of property by the government without compensation or due process, by mandating the generator’s availability to operate. They also asserted that keeping the unit available to operate “will not best meet DOE’s goal of securing dispatchable electricity resources in the northwestern United States.” Energy Secretary Chris Wright employed his emergency powers to issue the order on December 30, 2025, the day before the 427-MW coal-fired unit of the Craig Generating Station was due for retirement. His justification was the power supply shortfall in the Midwest. Tri-State and Platte River, the unit’s owners, contend that DOE failed to demonstrate the existence of a pressing emergency that would require the plant’s continued operation.
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