theguardian

In phone call, Paetongtarn Shinawatra discusses border dispute with former Cambodian leader and calls him ‘uncle’

Thailand’s prime minister,Paetongtarn Shinawatra, apologised after a leaked phone conversation with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen prompted public anger and threatened the collapse of her government.

In the leaked call, Paetongtarn – daughter of the populist former leader Thaksin Shinawatra –discusses an ongoing border disputewith Hun Sen, who is known to be a friend of her family.

In the recording, she can be heard criticising a senior Thai military commander who she said “just wanted to look tough”, describing him as an opponent. Addressing Hun Sen as “uncle”, she adds that if there were anything he wanted to “just let me know, I’ll take care of it”.

Paetongtarn told a press conference on Thursday: “I would like to apologise for the leaked audio of my conversation with a Cambodian leader which has caused public resentment.”

Hun Sen, who ruled Cambodia for almost four decades, was succeeded by his son, Hun Manet, the current prime minister, in 2023, but remains politically powerful.

Paetongtarn said her comments were a negotiating tactic, but this has done little to quell public anger.

The Thai foreign ministry summoned the Cambodian ambassador on Thursday to deliver a protest letter complaining about the leaking of the call. The full version was released by Hun Sen after the initial clip was leaked.

The phone call threw Paetongtarn’s government into chaos, threatening to destroy the uneasy partnership formed between her family and their former rivals in the military.

The conservative Bhumjaithai party – the second largest in the coalition – pulled out of the ruling coalition, leaving her government with a slim majority. Leaders of the Chartthaipattana, United Thai Nation and Democrat parties held urgent talks on the crisis on Thursday afternoon but have not withdrawn.

If another coalition partner were to pull out, it could make her position untenable and could force an election, or an attempt by other parties to cobble together a new coalition.

Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, leader of the opposition People’s Party, earlier called for Paetongtarn to dissolve parliament to prevent groups from exploiting the situation “and inciting an incident that could harm the democracy”, warning against a military coup.

Thailand’s government has been challenged by a dozen coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, and for the past two decades the country’s politics has been dominated by a power struggle between the military and Paetongtarn’s family, the Shinawatras. Her father, Thaksin Shinawatra, was ousted in a 2006 coup, and her aunt Yingluck was removed from power by a court ruling followed by a coup in 2014.

Hundreds of anti-government protesters, some of them veterans of the royalist, anti-Thaksin “Yellow Shirt” movement of the late 2000s, demonstrated outside Government House on Thursday, demanding that Paetongtarn quit.

Ken Lohatepanont, a Thai political analyst, said that “while a coup is no longer completely unthinkable” it did not appear likely yet, adding: “The democratic process has not yet reached an impasse.”

Thailand’s military said in a statement that army chief Gen Pana Claewplodtook “affirms commitment to democratic principles and national sovereignty protection”.

“The Chief of Army emphasised that the paramount imperative is for ‘Thai people to stand united’ in collectively defending national sovereignty,” it said.

Paetongtarn, who has been in officeless than a year, is also facing legal threats. At least three petitions have been filed against the leader over the leaked call, including to the National Anti-Corruption Commission, accusing her of ethical misconduct and violating the constitution, and to the Central Investigation Bureau, accusing her of offences against national security. The Election Commission has also been urged to investigate.

The crisis comes at a time when the Thai economy is struggling, with a fall in Chinese visitors hitting its tourism industry, and the threat of US tariffs of 36% looming.

Paetongtarn has not responded to calls for her to resign, but has sought to convince the public that her government stands united with the military as it responds to the dispute with Cambodia.

“Now, we have no time to fight among ourselves. We must defend our sovereignty, and the government is ready to support the armed forces by all means. We will work together,” she said.

On Friday, Paetongtarn will travel to Thailand’s northeast, where clashes have occurred, to meet with Lt Gen Boonsin Padklang, the commander of the forces in northeast Thailand, whom she criticised in the call.

Messages advise staff to also warn students off celebrations to avoid violating national security law

Teachers inHong Konghave been warned to keep themselves and students away from any US Independence Day celebrations as they may breach national security laws, educators have alleged.

A text message purportedly sent by the principal of a Hong Kong school to staff said the education bureau’s regional education office had reminded them “to be careful about Independence Day activities organised by the US consulate in Hong Kong, and not to participate to avoid violating the national security law and Hong Kong laws”.

The text was published on Edu Lancet, a Facebook page run by a former manager at the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, Hans Yeung. It urged staff to be diligent in “protecting” any students who were considering participating, and to discourage them.

Another email shared on Edu Lancet, and seen independently by the Guardian, told faculty staff that any teacher who received an invitation from an embassy or a foreign organisation funded by an embassy must seek permission to attend from the principal for the purpose of “maintaining national security”.

The Hong Kong education bureau did not confirm or deny the claims in response to questions from the Guardian, but in a statement said it had enacted policies to help schools “effectively prevent and suppress acts and activities that endanger or are detrimental to national security.

“Schools have the responsibility to play a good gatekeeper role and to enhance the sensitivity of teachers and students to national security.”

The bureau had enacted “clear guidelines” for schools that required them to “establish school-based mechanisms and formulate appropriate measures, according to their own circumstances and needs, to implement various tasks related to safeguarding national security and national security education”, it added.

The bureau did not answer questions about what laws would be broken by attending any Fourth of July event, or whether such warnings only applied to the US holiday.

The US Consulate in Hong Kong has been contacted for comment.

Edu Lancet and Yeung, who runs the page to voice concerns from those working with the education system and “expose the current problems”, have been criticised by the Hong Kong government in the past for their posts. The security secretary, Chris Tang, has accused Yeung of “making incitements” from his current home in the UK.

The purported directives fit in with tightening restrictions on Hong Kong’s education system, and a push to have the curriculum focus more on national security amid increased control of the city by the Chinese government. After pro-democracy protests rocked the city in 2019, the ruling Chinese Communist party imposed a national security law on Hong Kong that broadly outlawed acts of dissent and opposition as violations against the state.

In 2020, the then chief executive, Carrie Lam,blamed the education systemfor fuelling the protests, setting the tone for an overhaul that is ongoing.

The Hong Kong governmenthas since alteredtheschool curriculumto includeteachings on national securityin subjects such asEnglish language, music, maths and sport, and to focus more onpatriotic education. It has also banned texts it sees as endangering national security, including a picture book about sheep created by the city’s physiotherapists union,and prosecuted authors.

Teachers in Hong Kong have previouslytold the Guardianthey felt pressure to self-censor for fear of being reported for remarks seen as unpatriotic. Since the start of the 2023-24 school year, all new teachers in public sector schools, direct subsidy scheme schools and kindergartens must sit an exam on Hong Kong’s mini constitution, the Basic Law, and the national security law.

Hong Kong’s education minister, Christine Choi, hasrepeatedly warned of “soft resistance” in schools, and this month said educators had to be vigilant against the infiltration of “hostile forces” through events such as book fairs and extracurricular activities which “could include undesirable reading materials”.

Additional reporting by Jason Tzu Kuan Lu

Tropical Storm Dalila brings flooding to Acapulco, while Hurricane Erick causes disruption in Oaxaca state

While the western Atlantic has experienced a quiet start to the hurricane season, the eastern Pacific has recently become fairly active, producing a tropical storm and a category 4 hurricane within a few days.

The first and weaker of these systems, Tropical Storm Dalila, developed into a tropical storm late last week. Although this storm stayed off the coast ofMexicoand was relatively weak to other storms that have developed in this region, Dalila brought flooding and mudslides to the resort town of Acapulco, in western Mexico.

On Tuesday, Hurricane Erick formed in the eastern Pacific, marking the fifth named storm in the region. Erick rapidly strengthened off the west coast of Mexico into a category 2 hurricane on Wednesday, before transitioning into a category 4 hurricane on Thursday, with maximum sustained winds of about 140mph. Despite having been downgraded to category 3 by the time it made landfall over the state of Oaxaca, sustained wind speeds still reached almost 130mph, causing major disruption. Large waves were produced by Erick, with the popular surfing spot Puerto Escondido seeing waves breaking at over 20ft (about 6 metres).

Up to 400mm of rain is expected to fall through the course of the hurricane’s passing, bringing further flooding and landslides to areas that were already affected by Dalila late last week and earlier this week. Forecasts indicate the hurricanewill deintensify as it pushes north-westwards across mountainous terrain in Mexico.

The tropical eastern Pacific is expected to continue to be active through the rest of June, with potential development areas being watched by the National Hurricane Center. In contrast, the Atlantic is expected to remain quiet for a time, but is still forecast to produce an above-average number of storms and hurricanes.

Typhoon Wutip, which developed in the SouthChinaSea last week as the first typhoon of the season, moved north-eastwards through south-east China last Sunday and Monday, resulting in the death of seven people. Although the system weakened to a remnant low soon after making landfall with China, it continued to bring flooding, with 70,000 people evacuated as Huaiji county was placed on its highest level of flood alert.

Retired army officer Roberto Samcam was killed in San José by gunmen, the latest of several attacks on Ortega’s critics

A retiredNicaraguanarmy officer in exile turned fierce critic of the country’s authoritarian presidentDaniel Ortegahas been shot dead in neighboringCosta Rica.

Maj Roberto Samcam, 66, was shot at his apartment building in San José on Thursday, reportedly by men pretending to deliver a package.

“It was something we did not expect, we could not have imagined it,” said Samantha Jirón, Samcam’s adoptive daughter.

Nicaraguan rights groups and exiled dissidents immediately blamed the government of Ortega and his co-president wife, Rosario Murillo.

“Roberto was a powerful voice” who “directly denounced the dictatorship” of Ortega, Samcam’s wife, Claudia Vargas, told reporters in San José as she fought back tears.

His job, she said, was to “expose human rights violations” in his homeland.

The head of Costa Rica’s judicial police, Randall Zuñiga, said that the attackers took advantage of the fact that Samcam’s apartment building was unguarded in the mornings.

The gunman called out to Samcam, and “when he was within striking range, the individual began shooting at him and hit him at least eight times”, Zuñiga told reporters.

The Nicaraguan news site Confidencial reported that the killers fled the scene by motorbike.

The US state department’s bureau of western hemisphere affairs said on X that it was “shocked” by Samcam’s murder and offered Costa Rica help in “holding the assassins and those behind them accountable”.

Nicaragua’s former ambassador to the Organization of American States, Arturo McFields, who lives in exile in the United States, called the killing “an act of cowardice and criminal political revenge by the dictatorship of Nicaragua”.

“The manner of the crime indicates political motives. This is very serious,” the exiled Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli wrote on social media.

Neither Ortega nor his government commented on the case.

Samcam, who was a political analyst, had spoken out frequently against the government in Managua, which he fled in 2018 to live with his wife in Costa Rica.

That year, protests against Ortega’s government were violently repressed, resulting in more than 300 deaths, according to the UN.

In January last year, another Nicaraguan opposition activist living in Costa Rica, Joao Maldonado, was shot while driving with his girlfriend in San José. Both were seriously wounded.

Former Costa Rican president Luis Guillermo Solís called Samcam’s murder “for his frontal opposition to the Ortega and Murillo dictatorship” an “outrageous and extremely serious act”.

“I feel thatDaniel Ortegaand Rosario Murillo are initiating a ‘night of the long knives’ … due to the regime’s weakening,” Dora María Téllez, a former comrade of Ortega turned critic, said from Spain, where she too is in exile.

The Night of the Long Knives was a bloody purge of rivals ordered by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in 1934.

“They resort to the execution of a retired ex-military officer, who they believe has a voice that resonates within the ranks of the army,” Téllez told the Nicaraguan news outlet 100% Noticias.

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Ortega, now 79, first served as president from 1985 to 1990 as a former guerrilla hero who had helped oust a brutal US-backed regime.

Returning to power in 2007, he became ever more authoritarian, according to observers, jailing hundreds of opponents, real and perceived, in recent years.

Ortega’s government has shut down more than 5,000 non-governmental organizations since the 2018 mass protests that he considered a US-backed coup attempt.

Thousands of Nicaraguans have fled into exile, and the regime is under US and EU sanctions.

Most independent and opposition media operate from abroad.

Pro-government media in Nicaragua did not report on Samcam’s killing.

Bill prioritizes ‘nation-building’ pipelines and mines, causing concern that sped-up approvals will override constitutional rights

Canada’sLiberal government is poised to pass controversial legislation on Friday that aims to kick-start “nation building” infrastructure projects but has received widespread pushback from Indigenous communities over fears it tramples on their constitutional rights.

On its final day of sitting before breaking for summer, parliament is expected to vote on Bill C-5. The legislation promised byMark Carney, the prime minister, during the federal election, is meant to strengthen Canada’s economy amid a trade war launched byDonald Trump.

The bill removes interprovincial trade barriers and aims to prioritize infrastructure projects, such as energy pipelines and mines deemed to be in the national interest.

It is the latter portion of the bill that has caused concern among Indigenous communities over fears the government, granted broad powers, could speed up approvals for infrastructure and energy projects and override protest from Indigenous communities.

Ahead of the vote, Carney defended the legislation, which was amended earlier this week to ease concerns from Indigenous leadership.

“At the heart of this legislation is… not just respect for, but full embrace of, free, prior and informed consent. It has to be seen in parallel with very major measures that this government is taking to not just support those partnerships, but also to finance equity ownership in these nation-building projects forIndigenous peoples, Indigenous groups, Indigenous rights holders,” said Carney.

Under Canadian law, the crown has a “duty to consult” Indigenous communities on projects that could adversely affect them. “Consultation, co-operation, engagement, participation is at the heart of C-5 and that is how you build a nation. And that’s very much how we’ve designed it,” Carney said.

While the bill says the government must consult Indigenous communities in cases where their rights are affected by a fast-tracked project, it also allows the Liberal cabinet to overrule pre-existing laws to speed up permits for major projects.

The federal legislation comes as provinces also pass bills that speed up infrastructure projects. Ontario plans to create “special economic zones” that would bypass all provincial laws, amid tensions between the premier and First Nations chiefs in areas slated for mining.

Doug Ford, Ontario’s premier, provoked criticism earlier this week criticized for saying First Nations communities “keep coming hat in hand all the time to the government” for more money. He apologized the following day after meeting with chiefs from the Anishinabek Nation, which represents 39 of Ontario’s 133 First Nations chiefs.

“I get pretty passionate. And I just want to say, I sincerely apologize for my words, not only if it hurt all the chiefs in that room, but all First Nations,” said Ford. “I get passionate because I want prosperity for their communities.”

Both the federal and provincial legislation reflect the friction between speedy resource and infrastructure development and the need to consult with affected communities that have beenhistorically marginalized, both socially and economically.

Earlier this week Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, the Assembly of First Nations national chief, warned the federal bill was being “rammed through” parliament.

“First Nations are united,” she told CBC News. “They want prosperity, but they don’t want it at the expense of our rights.”

Woodhouse Nepinak says she and other leaders across the country want the government to pause the bill for more study. But Carney is eager to pass the bill, fulfilling a campaign promise that his government would eliminate internal trade barriers by 1 July. Indigenous leaders have warned a failure to fully consult on the bill could lead to widespread national protests, akin tothe Idle No More movementin 2012.

‘Basically a whole shelf of a mountain came loose’ said one person who fled the scene in Banff National Park

Two people have been killed and another three injured when a major rockfall crashed onto a group of hikers on a popular Rocky Mountain trail in westernCanada.

The accident happened on Thursday near the Bow Glacier Falls in Banff National Park, about 225km (140 miles) north-west of Calgary, Alberta. The area is known for its natural beauty and is particularly busy in summer.

The first victim was a 70-year-old woman from Calgary. In a joint statement, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and ParksCanadasaid a second body had been recovered early on Friday.

No more people have been reported missing.

Local resident Niclas Brundell, who was hiking on the trail, estimated that about 15 to 20 people were standing to the right of the falls when he and his wife noticed small rocks tumbling down. Alarmed, the two of them ran from the area.

“I turned round and saw basically a whole shelf of a mountain come loose,” he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

“We just kept sprinting and I couldn’t see the people behind us anymore because they were all in that cloud of rock.“

Andy Dragt, an organizer for a local hiking club, told the Globe and Mail newspaper that one of its members had been killed in the rockfall. Around 10 club members had been present, he said, declining to identify the dead person.

Witnesses say some of those onboard hurled themselves out to escape flames as reports say fire started from torch in balloon’s basket

At least eight people have died after a hot-air balloon carrying more than 20 people caught fire and plunged through the sky inBrazil’sdeep south.

Footage posted on social media showed the moment the multi-coloured aircraft fell to earth, engulfed in flames, in the state of Santa Catarina on Saturday morning. At least two of the balloon’s occupants can be seen plummeting to the ground as the fire spreads. “My God!” one witness can be heard gasping as the basket hurtles towards the ground.

The picturesque, canyon-filled region where the crash took place – 170 miles from the state capital, Florianópolis – is a major tourist destination known as the “Brazilian Cappadocia” after the region of Turkey where spectacular hot-air balloon trips are also popular.

Santa Catarina’s governor, Jorginho Mello, expressed “consternation” over the incident, which took place near the town of Praia Grande, and said rescue workers had been sent to the scene. “[There were] 21 people on board – eight fatalities, 13 survivors,” Mello wrote on X. Other reports said the balloon had been carrying 22 people.

A local newspaper, Jornal Razão, said the incident happened at about 7am local time, as about 30 balloons took to the air over Praia Grande, nicknamed the state’s “Canyon Capital”.

“When the balloon started to catch fire, people hurled themselves out,” one witnesstold the newspaper. “They were trying to escape the flames.”

“It was a desperate scene,” another witness was quoted as saying. “We [saw] some them throwing themselves out [of the balloon] and others trapped in the fire.”

“The atmosphere in the area of the tragedy is one of utter disaster,” one of the paper’s reporters wrote in their dispatch from the crash site.

Jornal Razão said the balloon’s pilot – who was reportedly among the survivors – told officials that the fire had been started by a reserve torch that was inside the balloon’s basket.

“When he noticed the fire, the pilot tried to descend quickly with the balloon. When the aerostatwas close to the ground, he ordered the passengers to jump. Some managed to jump out and survived with injuries. Others, however, didn’t get out in time,” the pilot said, according to the newspaper.

Emmanuel MwambaandFiona Mulaishorespond to an editorial on US aid cuts to Zambia and huge sums taken out of the country by multinationals

Your editorial (The Guardian view on Zambia’s Trumpian predicament: US aid cuts are dwarfed by a far bigger heist, 10 January) highlights research by Prof Andrew Fischer, and the exploitation of Zambia’s commodity resources via illicit financial schemes. Many Zambians have raised the issue of this looting for years, but have met coordinated resistance. Consequently, Zambia’s treasury loses billions of dollars in revenue. These losses are driven by well-known multinationals working in concert with certain insiders close to the Zambian state.

Your editorial also says: “The US decision to cut $50m a year in aid toZambia… is dreadful, and the reason given, corruption, rings hollow.” Alas, I disagree and wish to place this in context.

The aid cut followed large-scale theft of US-donated medical supplies by individuals connected to and within the Zambian state. Even before Donald Trump assumed office, Michael Gonzales, the US ambassador, confronted Zambian authorities about this. US officials engaged in33 meetingswith senior members of the Zambian government and officers from the Zambia police service and other law enforcement agencies. US officials urged the Zambians to take action to ensure medicines reached the country’s poorest citizens. The president’s inner circle ignored the warnings, ultimately leading to the aid cut. The Zambian government’s reaction was to dismiss these legitimate concerns, saying diplomatsshould stay out of Zambia’s internal affairs.

This response is inadequate, as the issues go beyond mere bureaucratic inefficiency and touch on profound state corruption.

The government’s refusal to confront this reality is disappointing and has led to more suffering, where ordinary people who benefited from this aid will be most affected.Emmanuel MwambaZambia’s high commissioner to SouthAfrica(2015-19)

As a Zambian and UK citizen, I am both enraged and heartbroken by Prof Andrew Fischer’s research exposing the systematic plunder of my country’s wealth. WhileDonald Trumpcuts our aid, citing “corruption”, the real thieves operate with complete impunity under the guise of legitimate business.

The figures are devastating:$5bn extractedin 2021 alone. This isn’t corruption in the traditional sense, it’s legalised theft orchestrated by multinational corporations that exploit our resources while leaving us in poverty. How can we be called corrupt when the very system designed to “help” us facilitates our exploitation?

I think of my fellow Zambians struggling to access basic healthcare, education and clean water while billions flow to Swiss bank accounts. We sit on some of the world’s most valuable mineral deposits, yet we’re drowning in debt. This isn’t coincidence – it’s by design.

Foreign direct investment is often foreign direct extraction in disguise. Companies like Glencore and First Quantum Minerals have treated Zambia like a cash machine, using complex financial structures to strip our wealth while paying minimal taxes. When confronted, they simply leave or settle for pennies in the pound.

This global economic architecture, which enables legal plunder, must be challenged. African countries need new models of resource governance that prioritise our people over foreign shareholders. We need transparency requirements exposing these shadowy financial flows, progressive taxation capturing fair value from our resources, and regional cooperation preventing companies from playing us against each other.

The west’s moralising about corruption while facilitating this systematic theft is breathtaking hypocrisy. Until the international community addresses the structural violence of this extractive system, their aid will remain what it truly is – a drop in the ocean compared with the torrent of wealth flowing out of Africa.Fiona MulaishoLondon

Residents of Bille and Ogale in Niger delta are suing Shell and subsidiary, but company denies liability

Residents of two Nigerian communities who are taking legal action against Shell over oil pollution are set to take their cases to trial at the high court in 2027.

Members of the Bille and Ogale communities in the Niger delta, which have a combined population of about 50,000, are suing Shell and a Nigerian-based subsidiary of the company, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, which is now the RenaissanceAfricaEnergy Company.

The two communities began the legal action in 2015, claiming they had suffered systemic and ongoing oil pollution for years due to the companies’ operations in the African country, including the pollution of drinking water.

They are seeking compensation and asking for the companies to clean up damage caused by the spills.

The companies are defending the claims, saying that the majority of spills are caused by the criminal acts of third parties or illegal oil refining, for which they are not liable.

On Friday, Mrs Justice May ruled on more than 20 preliminary issues in the claims after a hearing held in London over four weeks in February and March.

She said that “some 85 spills have, so far, been identified”, but added that the case was “still at a very early stage”.

Her findings included thatShellcould be sued for damage from pipeline spills caused by third parties, such as vandals, in efforts to steal oil, a process known as bunkering.

She also said that, while there was a five-year limitation period on bringing legal claims, a “new cause of action will arise each day that oil remains” on land affected by the spills.

The cases are due to be tried over four months, starting in March 2027.

Reacting to the ruling, the leader of the Ogale community, King Bebe Okpabi, said: “It has been 10 years now since we started this case. We hope that now Shell will stop these shenanigans and sit down with us to sort this out. People in Ogale are dying; Shell need to bring a remedy. We thank the judicial system of the UK for this judgment.”

A Shell spokesperson said that the company also welcomed the judgment. They said: “For many years, the vast majority of spills in the Niger Delta have been caused by third parties acting unlawfully, such as oil thieves who drill holes in pipelines or saboteurs.

“This criminality is the cause of the majority of spills in the Bille and Ogale claims, and we maintain that Shell is not liable for the criminal acts of third parties or illegal refining. These challenges are managed by a joint-venture, which Shell’s former subsidiary operated, using its expertise in spill response and clean-up.”

One plant produces more arsenic pollution than any other in US, and the other has been slated for closure since 2021

TheTrump administrationis moving to keep open twoMichigancoal plants that emit about 45% of the state’sgreenhouse gas pollution, which opponents say is an indication of how the US president plans to wield his controversialnational energy emergencyexecutive order.

Already, the US Department of Energy (DoE) has ordered the JH Campbell coal plant on LakeMichiganto remain open beyond its 31 May closure date, while the administration is expected to prolong the life of the Monroe power plant on Lake Erie, currently scheduled to begin closing in 2028.

Opponents say the order has little support in Michigan, could cost ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars, and is ideologically driven. The state’s utilities have said they did not ask for the plants to stay online, and theTrump administrationdid not communicate with stakeholders before the order, a spokesperson for the Michigan public service commission (MPSC), which regulates utilities and manages the state’s grid, told the Guardian.

“The unnecessary recent order … will increase the cost of power for homes and businesses in Michigan and across the midwest,” the chair of the MPSC, Dan Scripps, said in a statement. “We currently produce more energy in Michigan than needed. As a result, there is no existing energy emergency in either Michigan or [the regional US grid].”

The massive and ageing facilities also release high levels of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter into the air. Meanwhile, their coal ash ponds leach arsenic, lead, lithium, radium and sulfate into local drinking water and the Great Lakes. The Monroe power plant is responsible for more arsenic water pollution than any other power plant in the US.

The DoE in a statement told the Guardian the plan was about grid reliability, and added: “Decommissioning baseload power sources such as coal plants would jeopardize the reliability of our grid systems.

“This administration is committed to ensuring Americans have access to reliable, affordable, and secure energy that isn’t dependent on whether the sun shines or the wind blows,” a spokesperson added.

However, ConsumersEnergysaid in May said it did not need to keep the coal plant online to meet energy needs. It recently bought a nearby gas plant, and has begun building large-scale renewable installations.

The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which maintains the regional grid across 15 states, issued a report stating that while there is some risk for power disruption in the summer months, it is low, and “adequate resources are available to maintain reliability”.

That could set the stage for a lawsuit from Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, who said in May she may sue over the order to keep the Campbell plant open, and labeled Trump’s energy emergency “fabricated”.

The Campbell plant will initially remain open for 90 days, but the order is expected to be renewed, said Jan O’Connell, senior energy organizer with the Sierra Club Michigan.

Michigan’s climate law requires 100% clean energy for utilities by 2040. Consumers Energy, which owns the Campbell plant, has since 2021 been planning for the plant’s closure as required by the state’s energy plan. The company said the Campbell plant’s closure would save ratepayers about $600m by 2040.

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The plant largely shut down for several days before reopening at the end of May, O’Connell said. She noted that many of the employees had already found other jobs, and purchasing coal on the spot is far more expensive than purchasing it months ahead of time, as is standard.

The administration’s order is costly and disruptive, and makes no sense for Consumers Energy or its customers, O’Connell said.

“This is going to cost the ratepayers a lot of money,” she added.

The Trump administration’s plans are also at odds with market forces, opponents say. Gas and renewables are generally cheaper and cause less pollution. Moreover, the nation’s utilities are planning to reduce coal generation bymore than 8GWby the end of the year, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

O’Connell said it appeared to be an ideological move with no basis in the needs of residents or the energy market.

“This is part of their goal to get rid of renewables and bring back fossil fuels,” she added.