DTE Energy Attacks $100 Million Fine For Zug Island Pollution On Appeal

Michigan Advance

October 19, 2026

DTE Energy’s lawyers filed their argument Friday to reverse a $100-million fine for sulfur dioxide pollution from the utility’s Zug Island facility.

DTE is appealing a February federal court ruling that found Southeast Michigan’s electric service provider responsible for Clean Air Act violations by EES Coke Battery.

The utility reiterated the defense that it unsuccessfully mounted during a two-week bench trial: that DTE is not liable for the violations and is not an operator of the coke oven battery in River Rouge.

“Nothing EES Coke did warrants the largest stationary-source penalty in the CAA’s history,” DTE lawyers said, referring to the Clean Air Act in the brief to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

A three-judge panel at the Cincinnati court is set to hear oral arguments in the case Dec. 17.

Even if the appeals court agrees that DTE is liable, it should still cancel the $100-million fine and send the case back to the lower court to reconsider the fine amount, DTE’s lawyers said in the court filing.

The $100 million air pollution judgment against DTE

U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain ordered DTE and three of its subsidiaries to pay $100 million in fines to the federal government within 90 days, and to come into compliance with the Clean Air Act by submitting New Source Review Permit applications within 250 days.

DTE must form a community committee within 120 days and provide $20 million in funding for air quality improvement programs over seven years, Drain’s order said.

DTE exerted sweeping control over a heavily polluting coke facility, profiting from delayed compliance while nearby communities bore irreversible health costs, Drain said in the Feb. 17 order that followed a September 2025 bench trial.

The court found that DTE saved $70 million by failing to comply with the Clean Air Act. The judge applied a 1.5 times multiplier to the $70-million figure, known as the economic benefit of noncompliance, to deter future violations.

The EPA sought a $140-million civil penalty in the lawsuit, which DTE lawyers said amounts to a shutdown order on Zug Island. DTE and its subsidiaries requested a $5-million penalty in the case.

DTE: $20 million in community funding ‘crossed a line’

Drain entered the final judgment Feb. 24, and DTE appealed it March 25.

DTE posted a $123.5-million bond Sept. 1 to cover the $100-million judgment ordered by Drain; the $20 million in community funding; and one year of postjudgment interest on the civil penalties while the appeal is underway.

The Environmental Protection Agency sued EES Coke Battery in 2022, and DTE and two of its subsidiaries were added as defendants in 2024.

Drain’s order in the Zug Island lawsuit mandates the creation of a seven-member committee that will determine how $20 million for community air quality improvements is spent over seven years.

At least $5 million must be spent in the first three years, and the committee must meet quarterly. DTE is ordered to post progress reports semiannually on a public website.

The committee is established and the first meeting is being scheduled, Jill Wilmot, DTE’s director of corporate communications, told Planet Detroit.

DTE’s lawyers said in Friday’s filing that the court “crossed a line” by extending the $20 million in relief to advance air quality improvement projects to “thousands of non-parties … who did not sue” in River Rouge, Ecorse, and the Detroit ZIP code 48217. Those residents are not Sierra Club members, DTE said.

The Sierra Club and River Rouge intervened in the EPA lawsuit over EES Coke Battery emissions.

Sierra Club and River Rouge lawyers said that, because the Downriver city and the United States government are parties to the lawsuit, the public interest of their citizens, who “were personally harmed by this pollution,” is represented.

“The district court was well within its discretion to award the community fund relief to redress the still-ongoing harms from DTE’s air pollution in the communities where Sierra Club’s testifying members live (including River Rouge),” the Sierra Club said in its brief to the appeals court.

The district court found that Sierra Club members faced “substantial hardship as a result of the facility’s excess sulfur dioxide emission” based on evidence from residents and air quality and public health experts who showed that residents suffer asthma attacks and early deaths, the brief said.

‘Terrible’ summer for Zug Island trial witness

Theresa Landrum, a lifelong resident of ZIP code 48217, Sierra Club member, and environmental activist, said this summer was “terrible” for her health, with wildfire smoke adding to the air quality burden.

Landrum testified about her experience living within miles of Zug Island for 71 years during the two-week bench trial held in the EES Coke Battery lawsuit in September 2025.

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