Tri-State Generation and partner Platte River Power Authority had a “respectful” but emphatic response late Thursday to the Trump administration ordering them to keep Craig’s Unit 1 coal-fired plant open past the New Year:

They don’t need it, they don’t want it, and their inflation-strapped consumers can’t afford the higher bills. Plus, the federal order is unconstitutional.

Tri-State, which delivers power to 42 member co-ops and utilities serving more than 1 million people in four Western states, and Platte River Power, which serves Fort Collins, Loveland and northern Colorado, detailed their objections to keeping Craig open in a 38-page petition Thursday to the U.S. Department of Energy. They joined the Colorado attorney general and a coalition of environmental groups opposing the order at a deadline for the government to consider extending the emergency past March 30.

“We do not take this request for a rehearing lightly, but as not-for-profit entities, we face issues that other utilities do not, because it is our members that ultimately are going to pay for the cost of this order,” Tri-State CEO Duane Highley said.

Posting here instead of Environment, as at this point, it’s a legal issue with environmental ramifications.