Our Neighborhood

Earth

Keeping It Green

Environmental News
by Category

Page Updated:
Feb. 23, 2026

• • Trump EPA to Weaken Rule Limiting
  Harmful Mercury, Air Toxins From Coal Plants

  Images Confirm xAI is Continuing to Defy EPA Regulations in Mississippi to Power Its Flagship Data Centers

  
  

  Feb. 20, 2026 -The Trump administration announced on Friday it will roll back clean air regulations limiting mercury and hazardous toxins from power plants, saying it will boost baseload energy, while public health groups warn it will harm America's most vulnerable.

  President Trump's Environmental Protection Agency has said that easing the pollution standards would alleviate costs for utilities that run older coal plants at a time when demand for power is soaring amid the expansion of data centers used for artificial intelligence.

• • EPA Poised to Roll Back Power Plant Rules For Toxic Emissions

  In Another Boost For the Coal Industry, the Agency is Expected to Announce the Final Repeal of Biden-Era Hazardous Air Pollution Standards
  
  {GREENWIRE}
  
  

  Feb. 19, 2026 -The Trump administration is expected to deliver its latest boost to the fossil fuel industry Friday with an announcement that it’s scuttling stricter hazardous air pollutant regulations on coal-fired power plants put in place two years ago.

  EPA Deputy Administrator David Fotouhi will travel to Louisville, Kentucky, to tout what an agency advisory describes as a major action to “support affordable, dependable energy for American families.”

• • Trump Enlists Military to Rescue Coal

  The DOE Has Identified More Than Three Dozen Coal Plants That Could Power Military Installations
  
  {E&E NEWS}
  
  

  Feb. 11, 2026 -Dozens of coal plants, including those slated for retirement, could supply the military under President Donald Trump’s latest plan to save the embattled coal industry.

  Trump will sign an executive order Wednesday directing the Department of Defense to enter into power contracts with coal plants, according to a White House official. It wasn’t exactly clear how the administration intends to achieve that goal, but an Energy Department official said DOE had identified more than three dozen coal plants that could supply electricity to military installations.

  The administration’s stated goal is to provide a reliable source of power to the military and support coal plants that would otherwise retire, said the DOE official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press.

• • US's Largest Public Utility Says It Now
  Doesn't Want to Close Two Coal-Fired Plants

  TVA is Reversing Course On Coal: It Now Wants to Keep Operating Two Aging Coal Plants It Previously Planned to Shutter
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Feb. 11, 2026 -With a freshly staffed board (several members of which were recently appointed by President Trump), the nation’s largest public utility wants to scrap 2035 retirement dates for its Kingston and Cumberland coal plants in Tennessee—while still building gas-fired generation at both sites.

  Run it back: President Trump fired enough Biden-era TVA board members to freeze decision-making, then signed executive orders propping up coal before seating four new nominees in December.

• • Why's China Building So Many Coal
  Plants Despite Its Solar and Wind Boom

  China Has Significantly Increased Its Coal Power Capacity, Reviving Concerns About Its Climate-Changing Carbon Emissions
  
  {ABC News}
  
  

  Feb 3, 2026 -Even as China's expansion of solar and wind power raced ahead in 2025, the Asian giant opened many more coal power plants than it had in recent years — raising concern about whether the world's largest emitter will reduce carbon emissions enough to limit climate change.

  More than 50 large coal units — individual boiler and turbine sets with generating capacity of 1 gigawatt or more — were commissioned in 2025, up from fewer than 20 a year over the previous decade, a research report released Tuesday said. Depending on energy use, 1 gigawatt can power from several hundred thousand to more than 2 million homes.

• • Trump Wants to Halt Almost All Coal Plant Shutdowns

  It Could Get Messy
  
  
  

  Jan. 16, 2026 -Over the past eight months, the Energy Department has taken the extraordinary step of ordering that generators at five coal-burning power plants that had been headed for retirement stay open and keep running.

  That’s just the beginning, officials say.

  At a White House event on Thursday, Trump administration officials said they planned to keep open as many coal plants as they could and prevent any further retirements over the next three years.

• • Trump Admin Redirects Carbon Capture
  Funds to Prop Up Old Coal Plants

  The Enforcement Plunge is Part of a Deregulatory Push Across the Government As the Administration Seeks to Boost Fossil Fuels
  
  {E&E NEWS}
  
  

  Jan. 15, 2026 -The Energy Department is planning to prop up old and shuttered coal plants using more than half a billion dollars that Congress originally set aside to advance carbon capture technologies and improve energy resiliency and environmental protection in rural areas.

  It’s a move that former and current agency officials, legal experts and some lawmakers and appropriators say undermines congressional intent in the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law. That statute authorized and appropriated almost $3 billion to capture heat-trapping gases from big emitters through demonstration and pilot programs.

• • Beijing Won Its War for Blue Skies,
  but Villagers Are Paying the Price

  Leaving Many Villagers Vulnerable in Dangerously Cold Weather
  
  
  

  Jan. 13, 2026 -The temperature was 28 degrees, but Dong Tongzhou had turned off his heat at home and was standing in the village square wrapped in a tattered black coat, trying to soak up the midday sun. He wasn’t alone — other villagers sat on folding chairs and at a card table, as chickens strutted around and clucked.

  Mr. Dong, 68, used to warm his one-room home by burning coal, he explained on a recent afternoon. Then the government banned that for environmental reasons, and offered natural gas as a replacement. But that could cost three times as much. To save money, Mr. Dong often sunbathed for warmth.

• • Coal Communities Accuse Congress of
  Breaking Its Promise to Clean Up Abandoned Mine Lands

  Coal Communities Are “Horribly Disappointed” After Congress Voted to Divert $500M Meant For Mine Cleanup
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Jan. 13, 2026 -Despite the 2021 infrastructure law authorizing $11B+ to reclaim lands and waterways damaged by abandoned coal mines, the House passed an appropriations bill last week to “repurpose” $500M of it to pay for wildfire management and Forest Service operations.

  Advocates in Pennsylvania and West Virginia warn that treating the cleanup fund like a "slush fund" will halt critical water treatment projects, effectively punishing regions that were counting on the money to remediate thousands of miles of dead rivers and dangerous sinkholes.

• • Trump Tosses Lifelines to the Struggling Coal Industry

  The Energy Department Ordered Two Coal-Burning Power Plants to Remain Open, and the EPA Gave Utilities More Time to Tackle Toxic Coal Ash
  
  
  

  Dec. 24, 2025 -A day after the Trump administration acted to throttle offshore wind farms, it tossed two lifelines to coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel and a favored industry of the president.

  The government ordered two coal-burning power plants in Indiana to continue operating past their scheduled closure dates while it also gave hundreds of coal plants an additional five years before they need to prevent toxic chemicals from leaching into sources of drinking water.

• • Coal Demand to Begin Gradual Decline Through 2030

  This, According to IEA
  
  {Bloomberg}
  
  

  Dec. 17, 2025 -Global coal use has hit a ceiling and is set to begin a slow decline over the next five years as renewables and liquefied natural gas gain ground, the International Energy Agency said.

  Demand is expected to edge up 0.5% this year to a record 8,845 million tons before slipping 3% by 2030, according to the IEA’s annual coal report published Wednesday.

• • DOE Orders WA Coal Plant to
  Continue Operating Despite State Ban

  DOE Just Ordered Washington State’s Last Coal Plant to Keep Burning Past Its Scheduled Retirement
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Dec. 17, 2025 -Citing a “national energy emergency” declared by President Trump, DOE invoked the Federal Power Act to force TransAlta to keep its Centralia plant running until at least March 16, 2026.

  Yes, but: It directly violates a 2011 state agreement with the utility and a landmark climate act that mandates the plant close forever on December 31.

  Gov. Bob Ferguson and environmental groups call the emergency “fake” and are preparing to sue, warning that forced operation will spike utility bills for ratepayers who’d have no means of actually getting the power in 2026.

• • Global Coal Demand Has Reached a Plateau

  It May Well Decline Slightly By 2030
  
  {iea}
  
  

  Dec. 16, 2025 -New IEA market report sees increasing competition from other power sources, though developments in China’s electricity sector will remain key for coal’s prospects.

  Global coal demand is forecast to edge down through the end of this decade as competition intensifies with other power sources – including renewables, natural gas and nuclear – according to the 2025 edition of the IEA’s annual market report.

• • U.S. Emissions Jumped in 2025 as Coal Power Rebounded

  The Increase in Planet-Warming Emissions Came After Two Years of Decline as Demand For Electricity Has Been Surging
  
  
  

  Jan. 13, 2026 -America’s greenhouse gas emissions increased by 2.4 percent in 2025 after two years of decline amid a resurgence of coal power, according to estimates published Tuesday by the Rhodium Group, a research firm.

  The researchers identified two main reasons for the uptick. U.S. electricity demand grew at an unusually fast pace, driven in part by an expansion of power-hungry data centers for artificial intelligence. To meet that demand, electric utilities burned about 13 percent more coal last year than they did in 2024.

• • Mumbai Families Suffer As Datacentres
  Keep the City Hooked On Coal

  The Filthiest Neighbourhood In One Of India’s Largest Cities Must Keep Its Major Coal Plants
  
  
  

  Nov, 24, 2025 -Each day, Kiran Kasbe drives a rickshaw taxi through his home neighbourhood of Mahul on Mumbai’s eastern seafront, down streets lined with stalls selling tomatoes, bottle gourds and aubergines–and, frequently, through thick smog.

  Earlier this year, doctors found three tumours in his 54-year-old mother’s brain. It’s not clear exactly what caused her cancer. But people who live near coal plants are much more likely to develop the illness, studies show, and the residents of Mahul live a few hundred metres down the road from one.

• • Wyoming, Basin Electric Take Step
  Toward First New Coal Plant In Over A Decade

  Wyoming is Funding a Study to Build The Country’s First New Coal-Fired Power Plant In Years
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Nov. 24, 2025 -The state is giving Basin Electric $4M to explore adding a second unit to the Dry Fork Station, a site that was actually designed for expansion back in 2011, before the “war on coal” really heated up.

  The logic: Governor Mark Gordon calls it “proof that coal is not dead,” betting that new tech can make the fuel cleaner while providing the massive baseload needed for data centers and industrial users.

• • Trump Wants to Prop Up Coal Plants

  They Keep Breaking Down
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Nov. 16, 2025 -Environmental Defense Fund’s review of NERC data found coal’s equipment-related outage rate above 12%—roughly double wind’s 6.6%—driven by aging units, reduced maintenance, and tougher cycling as plants as coal shifts from baseload to a stop-gap role.

  Despite its setbacks, short-term coal use is rising as natural gas prices climb and load growth accelerates—a combo that boosts near-term economics even as the fleet faces long-term performance limits.

• • Federal Government May Order
  Colorado’s Coal Units to Stay Open

  Xcel Energy Plans 600MW 'US Midwest's Largest BESS Project' in Minnesota
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Nov. 6, 2025 -The utility has asked regulators to approve 600 MW of new battery storage at its Sherco Energy Hub, doubling its original plan and expanding total storage across the state to 735 MW when combined with other projects.

  The batteries will tap existing grid connections to store power from Xcel’s wind, solar, nuclear, and gas fleet and deliver it during peak demand. Construction could start in 2026, with the first units running by late 2027.

• • Xcel Energy Wants to Turn Minnesota’s Biggest
  Coal Site Into the Midwest’s Biggest Battery Hub

  Xcel Energy Plans 600MW 'US Midwest's Largest BESS Project' in Minnesota
  
  
  

  Nov. 6, 2025 -The utility has asked regulators to approve 600 MW of new battery storage at its Sherco Energy Hub, doubling its original plan and expanding total storage across the state to 735 MW when combined with other projects.

  The batteries will tap existing grid connections to store power from Xcel’s wind, solar, nuclear, and gas fleet and deliver it during peak demand. Construction could start in 2026, with the first units running by late 2027.

• • Trump’s Order to Keep Michigan Coal Plant Running

  It Has Cost $80 Million So Far
  
  
  

  Oct. 31, 2025 - The Trump administration’s emergency order to keep the huge J.H. Campbell coal plant on Lake Michigan operating past its planned retirement date has cost at least $80 million since May, its operator, Consumers Energy, told regulators and investors this week.

  The company said in its third-quarter earnings report Thursday that it would pursue the process laid out in the U.S. Department of Energy’s order for collecting those costs: It will seek payment from ratepayers across the Midwest.

• • Global Use of Coal Hit Record High in 2024

  Bleak Report Finds Greenhouse Gas Emissions Are Still Rising Despite ‘Exponential’ Growth of Renewables
  
  
  

  Oct. 22, 2024 -Coal use hit a record high around the world last year despite efforts to switch to clean energy, imperilling the world’s attempts to rein in global heating.

  The share of coal in electricity generation dropped as renewable energy surged ahead. But the general increase in power demand meant that more coal was used overall, according to the annual <State of Climate Action report, published on Wednesday.

• • New England Says Goodbye to Coal
  as Merrimack Station Powers Down

  After Decades of Operation, Merrimack Station’s Closure Marks the Region’s Final Exit From Coal
  
  
  

  Oct. 21, 2025 -The towering smokestacks of New England’s last coal-fired power plant have gone quiet. Merrimack Station in Bow, New Hampshire, shut down in September, years ahead of its scheduled closure, marking the end of coal-fired energy production in the region.

  Merrimack Station had supplied electricity to the region since the 1960s. But as coal’s financial viability waned and environmental pressures mounted, the era of coal power production in New England may now be officially over. In the coming years, on-site solar and battery storage could take coal’s place at the site.

• • China Helped Indonesia Build One of
  the World’s Biggest, Youngest Coal Fleets

  It’s Still Growing
  
  
  

  Oct. 19, 2025 -BANTEN PROVINCE, Indonesia—The city of Cilegon is surrounded by coal-fired power plants, half a dozen within 10 miles. Some days, the hills that rise above town nearly disappear behind smog that clogs the air and obscures the sky.

  One of the closest plants is a 2,000-megawatt behemoth called Java 7, completed in 2020 as a flagship of China’s investment in the region.

• • Renewable Energy Overtook Coal As
  the World’s Top Power Source for the First Time

  Renewable Energy Finally Surpassed Coal - A Turning Point Decades In The Making
  
  
  

  Oct. 14, 2024 -For the first time in history, clean energy has outshone coal. In the first half of 2025, renewables led by solar and wind generated more electricity worldwide than coal, according to new data from Ember, a global energy think tank.

  “Overall — we’re talking globally — renewables overtook coal,” said Malgorzata Wiatros-Motyka, a senior electricity analyst at Ember, in an interview with Grist. “And I expect this to hold.”

• • Coal Miners With Black Lung Say
  They Are ‘Cast Aside to Die’ Under Trump

  These Miners Say His Administration is Failing to Enforce Limits on a Lethal Workplace Hazard
  
  
  

  Oct. 14, 2024 -When coal miners came to Washington in April, they posed behind President Trump at the White House, wearing their hard hats and thanking him for trying to reinvigorate their struggling industry.

  But on Tuesday dozens of miners and their families will be in a more unusual position: protesting the Trump administration outside the Labor Department building, arguing it has failed to protect them from black lung disease, an incurable illness caused by inhaling coal and silica dust.

• • Company Bids Less Than a Penny Per
  Ton in Biggest US Coal Sale in Over a Decade

  A Navajo-Owned Mining Firm Just Bid Less Than 1¢ Per Ton for Federal Coal in Montana
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Oct. 8, 2025 -Navajo Transitional Energy Co. offered $186K for 167M tons in the Powder River Basin—a fraction of the $1.10-per-ton price Peabody paid for nearby coal in 2012. NTEC’s was the only bid submitted.

  The offer reflects coal’s steep decline: Utilities are phasing out plants that burn it, and global demand is uncertain as ports and overseas buyers shift toward cleaner energy.

• • Newest Big U.S. Coal-Plant Offline Until 2027

  America’s Newest Major Coal Plant is Going Dark For Nearly Two Years
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Oct. 7, 2025 -Texas’s 932-MW Sandy Creek plant—the last large coal facility built in the country—suffered a catastrophic failure in April and isn’t expected back online until March 2027, according to ERCOT.

  It’s the second time since 2011 that a major failure at Sandy Creek has rendered it unable to operate for a year or more.

• • Alabama Rolls Back Its Commitment to
  Monitor Explosive Gases Above Coal Mines

  Eighteen Months After a Fatal Explosion
  
  
  

  Oct. 3, 2025 -Alabama officials charged with protecting residents from surface impacts of underground coal mining have notified the federal government that they’ve suspended plans to require that expanding mines monitor for potentially explosive methane gas.

  The decision is a reversal of the state’s previous agreement with federal regulators spurred by a fatal home explosion above the expanding Oak Grove mine here in rural Jefferson County.

• • US Coal Auctions Will Test Industry
  Appetite for Trump Mining Revival

  Coal Companies Will Soon Decide How Much Appetite They Have for Trump’s Push to Revive Their Industry
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Sept. 30, 2025 -Competitive auctions begin this week in Alabama, Utah, Montana, and Wyoming, offering nearly 600M tons of recoverable coal across multiple tracts. Royalties were cut to 7% under President Trump’s tax law, down from up to 12.5%.

  Industry groups predict strong interest, but critics say any new leases would commit future generations to coal long after the market has moved on.

• • Duke Energy Gambles on Coal as a
  Shorter-Term Fix for Powering Data Centers

  Duke's New Carbon Plan
  
  
  

  Oct. 2, 2025 -Duke Energy plans to burn coal for two to four years longer than previously estimated, which will result in millions of tons in additional greenhouse gases over the next decade when combined with other proposed changes to the utility’s fuel mix.

  The utility would significantly increase battery storage—by 56 percent—but also deploy fewer renewables.

• • Cash For Coal ‘Clunkers’

  Analysts Say Coal Prices Would Need to Fall By Half To Regain Competitiveness Compared to Gas Or Renewables
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Sept. 30, 2025 -Utilities with large coal fleets—including Duke, NextEra, and Southern Company—declined to say whether the Trump administration’s new coal push will alter their strategies.

  “This funding is essentially cash for clunkers,” Brendan Pierpont, director of electricity modeling at the think tank Energy Innovation, told Semafor, “but without trading in the clunkers.”

• • Merrimack Station in Bow Has Shut For Good

  Coal Power is Gone:
  
  {Concord Monitor}
  
  

  Sept. 29, 2025 -Six decades after it began, coal-fired electricity is officially gone from New England following the shut-down of Merrimack Station in Bow, the region’s last power plant of its kind.

  Merrimack Station, which started in 1960 during a wave of new coal-fired electricity in the Northeast, ceased producing power Sept. 12 after a long rundown that saw it operating only a few weeks each year recently.

• • Trump Administration to Expand
  Coal Leasing, Fund Coal Plant Upgrades

  The Administration Rolled Out a Package of Policies Yesterday to Extend the Life of Coal Plants and Expand Mining
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Sept. 29, 2025 -DOE will put up $625M to upgrade existing coal plants, while Interior will open 13.1M acres of federal land for new mining and lower royalty rates for operators.

  EPA will roll back dozens of pollution standards, including limits on CO?, mercury, wastewater, and other emissions that have made coal more expensive to run.

• • Trump Officials Offer $625 Million to Rescue Coal

  ‘Mine, Baby, Mine’
  
  
  

  Sept. 29, 2025 -The Trump administration on Monday outlined a coordinated plan to revive the mining and burning of coal, the largest contributor to climate change worldwide.

  Coal use has been declining sharply in the United States since 2005, displaced in many cases by cheaper and cleaner natural gas, wind and solar power.

• • Energy Bills Are Soaring in America’s Coal Capital

  West Virginians Are Being Squeezed By a Coal-Heavy Grid and Rising Bills
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Sept. 29, 2025 -Despite sitting on vast coal reserves, electricity costs in the state have climbed nearly twice as fast as the US average over the past 15 years. Coal still provides 86% of the state’s power, locking utilities and customers into expensive long-term contracts.

  Nearly one in five households served by AEP subsidiaries are behind on payments, and disconnections soared to 56K last year—more than 10X the rate of a typical state.

• • Coal Stock at Power Plants Up 28% Year-On-Year

  Daily Rake Supply at 436.5 in September
  
  {ET Energy World}
  
  

  Sept. 17, 2025 -New Delhi: Coal availability at thermal power plants (TPPs) rose to 47.55 tons (MT) as of September 10, 2025, compared with about 37 MT in the period last year, an increase of nearly 28 per cent, according to official data.

  Mine-end stock stood at 99 MT, while the average daily coal rake supply during September was 436.5 per day, of which 388.6 rakes per day were delivered to the power sector.

• • Why India Says Coal Will Remain in the Energy Mix Till 2050

  This Is Despite Its Net Zero Pledge
  
  {EnergyWorld}
  
  

  Sept. 13, 2025 -At the 17th India Coal Summit, NITI Aayog advisor (Energy) Rajnath Ram underlined that India’s energy transition will not mean the end of coal in the near term. While India has pledged to achieve net zero by 2070, coal is expected to remain a key part of the country’s primary energy basket at least till 2047–50.

  Why coal will continue till 2047-50:

  India has coal reserves of about 347 billion tonnes. According to Rajnath Ram, the demand for energy will rise sharply as the economy expands 8-9 times by 2047. Energy demand is expected to grow three to four times, and electricity demand could increase by eight to nine times in the same period.

• • House Republicans Push New Coal Bills, But...

  Critics Say the Industry’s Decline Can’t Be Reversed
  
  
  
  

  Sept. 5, 2025 -Trump has made reviving the coal industry a political and policy priority in his second term, swimming against the current of a domestic—and international—market that’s increasingly turned away from the fuel source. A Wednesday hearing of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, on two bills aiming to bolster the U.S. coal industry, showcased the debate around the use of federal lands, the nation’s energy future and the fate of the world’s oldest fossil fuel.

  During the hearing, Republican lawmakers lauded coal as indispensable to U.S. energy security and blasted federal oversight as a bureaucratic chokehold suffocating the mining industry. Democrats and environmental groups dismissed the bills as a symbolic and misguided attempt to rescue U.S. coal production, arguing that the policies would fail to revive jobs and succeed only in worsening emissions and undermining progress on climate policy.

• • Will Trump Try to Keep Coal Burning in Pueblo?

  Pueblo County is Asking the Trump Administration to Keep Coal Burning as Colorado Regulators Greenlight the State’s Largest Clean Energy Build
  
  {Energy Central}
  
  

  Sept. 4, 2025 -The PUC approved 6,000 MW of new resources for Xcel—$15B in wind, solar, gas peakers, and batteries—but far less than the 14,000 MW the utility sought to meet data center demand. Commissioners insisted data centers, not households, shoulder the risk if demand projections flop.

  Local leaders say the plan abandons their community when its Comanche 3 coal plant closes in 2030, demanding a nuclear or gas plant to replace both the jobs and tax base. Their appeal to Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright signals a possible federal push to keep the county’s coal units running.

• • China and India Account For 87% of
  New Coal-Power Capacity so Far in 2025

  Whereas Other Regions Continued to Move Away From Coal
  
  {CarbonBrief}
  
  

  August 27, 2025 - These developments, highlighting a growing global divide between many countries phasing out coal power and a handful continuing to expand new capacity, are revealed in Global Energy Monitor’s latest Global Coal Plant Tracker results and reported here for the first time.

  The results include Ireland becoming the fifth EU country to phase out coal power and Latin America becoming a region with zero active proposals for new coal capacity.

  Meanwhile, the results show the US is on track to retire more coal capacity in 2025 than it did under the Biden administration last year, despite the efforts of the Trump White House.

• • The Battle Over Polluted Water
  Beneath an Iowa Coal Ash Landfill

  A Year-Long Fight With an Alliant Energy Subsidiary Over Its Discharge of Groundwater Possibly Contaminated With Coal Combustion Residuals
  
  
  
  

  August 27, 2025 -The Ottumwa-Midland Landfill holds ash from one of Iowa’s few remaining coal power plants.

  A stew of substances marinates within the landfill’s basin that, at high enough concentrations, is hazardous to human health.

  Any liquid discharges from the landfill are subject to state and federal rules governing safe treatment and disposal. But the rules aren’t so clear when it comes to the groundwater pumped out from beneath the landfill.

• • China’s Emissions Fall But Growing
  Coal-To-Chemicals Sector Raises Concern

  The Fast-Rising Use of Coal in the Production of Synthetic Fuels and Plastics Could Put China’s Climate Targets At Risk
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}
  
  

  August 21, 2025 -While China’s planet-warming emissions keep falling, its growing use of coal to produce liquid fuels and chemicals – including plastics – risks threatening its climate goals, a new analysis has shown.

  Record installations of solar power helped extend a slight decline in China’s overall carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the first half of 2025, but the country’s ballooning coal-to-chemicals industry bucked the positive trend, according to analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) for Carbon Brief.

• • EPA Plans to Revise Coal-Fired Power Plant Wastewater Rules

  It's Moving to Delay and Potentially Weaken Coal Plant Wastewater Rules That Were Finalized Last Year
  
  
  
  

  August 13, 2025 -The rule: The 2024 update set zero-discharge limits for toxic wastewater from coal plants, with a 2029 compliance deadline and an end-of-2025 requirement for plants unable to meet the standard to announce retirement plans.

  The shift: In a court filing, the EPA said it plans to extend the end-of-year deadline and reconsider both the technology basis for certain discharge limits and the zero-discharge standard itself.

• • Coal Company Sues UK

  After Environmentalists Win Major Climate Case
  
  
  
  

  August 11, 2025 -A coal company is pushing back against the United Kingdom after a British court canceled a proposed mine due to a flawed accounting of its potential climate impacts.

  On Friday, the mine’s Singaporean and U.K. investors initiated arbitration proceedings against the British government based on a 1975 treaty between the U.K. and Singapore that allows foreign companies to bypass national courts and challenge governmental policies before panels of arbitrators, part of a little-known but powerful system embedded in thousands of international investment agreements and contracts.

• • Kids in Pennsylvania Are Breathing
  (Much) Easier After a Coal Plant Shuttered

  Pediatric Asthma ER Visits Dropped 40 Percent After a Coal Processing Plant Near Pittsburgh Closed Down
  
  
  
  

  August 5, 2025 -In 2015, when Karen Grzywinski heard that the Shenango Coke Works near Pittsburgh was closing after 54 years in operation, she didn’t believe it. Neither did her neighbors, some of whom had joined her in fighting a long battle for the plant to better control its pollution. “A number of us thought it was a joke,” she said. “We were really, really surprised.”

  Shenango, which produced coke, a concentrated form of coal used to manufacture steel, was then a major source of air pollution in the region. After years of suffering from respiratory symptoms triggered by bad air days, Grzywinski said she noticed a change soon after the closure.

• • Coal Royalty Rate Drop Could Boost Business

  It Also Means Less Revenue for Wyoming
  
  {energycentral}
  
  

  July 22, 2025 -The GOP megabill drops federal coal royalties from 12.5% to 7%, slicing into funds that support Wyoming’s schools, roads, and healthcare.

  State economists hope increased production will offset the loss, but warn the math may not add up—especially as demand for coal continues its long-term decline.

• • EPA To Delay Cleanups of Georgia’s Toxic Coal Ash Landfills

  The EPA Will Side With the Coal Industry
  
  {SIERRA CLUB}
  
  

  July 18, 2025 - Coal ash, also known as coal combustion residuals (CCRs), is the toxic ash left behind from burning coal and can pollute waterways, groundwater, drinking water, and the air with harmful chemicals such as mercury, cadmium, chromium, and arsenic. In Georgia, there are 24 federally regulated coal ash ponds and landfills containing nearly 87 million cubic yards of toxic waste at nine coal plants. All but one of these sites have contaminated groundwater.

  This decision comes as the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) is considering allowing coal ash to be capped-in-place at Plant McDonough, leaving the toxic ash in an unlined pit with no barrier to prevent it from seeping into groundwater below.

• • Coal's Comeback in the U.S. Under Trump

  Trump’s Administration is Promoting Coal By Halting Plant Closures and Supporting New Mining Projects
  
  {OILPRICE}
  
  

  July 7, 2025 - Under the Biden administration, the United States made strides in its green transition, supported by policies such as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). The U.S. renewable energy capacity increased significantly, and a long-term shift away from coal was in the works. However, since President Trump came into office, his administration has begun to undo much of the green progress made over the last four years and is once again looking to coal to meet the domestic power demand.

  Coal is widely considered the “dirtiest fossil fuel”, as burning it is the single largest contributor to global warming, accounting for 41 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, as well as high levels of methane

• • New Energy Realities Could Extend
  Coal’s Role in Global Energy Markets

  How Energy Security Concerns, Unprecedented Power Demand, and Technological Advances Could Extend Coal’s Life and Reshape the Global Energy Transition
  
  {yahoo!finance}
  
  

  July 17, 2025 -Global coal demand could remain stronger for longer, with coal-fired power generation potentially staying dominant through 2030, well beyond current projections for peak coal, according to a new Horizons report from Wood Mackenzie.

  The report titled ‘Staying power: How new energy realities risk extending coal’s sunset’ suggests that a confluence of factors, from a rapidly electrifying global economy to energy security priorities rising from geopolitical and cost shocks to Asia’s young and evolving coal fleet, could extend coal’s role as a vital power source well into the next decade and beyond.

• • Don't 'Coal' It a Comeback

  Financial Industry Pledges to Move Away From Coal Haven't Translated Into Reduced Worldwide Funding
  
  {AXIOS}
  
  

  July 10, 2025 -Why it matters: Coal is the most CO2-intensive fuel, and its future trajectory will help dictate how much global warming occurs.

  Driving the news: The report from German NGO Urgewald and other groups traces funding since the 2021 UN climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

  The summit featured many non-binding country pledges to phase down coal and major bank vows to wring CO2 out of their portfolios over time.

  What they found: The analysis of 650 commercial banks worldwide, which explores finance for thermal coal production and coal-fired power, shows $130 billion in loans and underwriting in 2024.

• • US Power Pollution Climbs On Higher Coal Use

  U.S. Power Sector Emissions Are Already at Their Highest Levels in Three Years, But Will Likely Climb Further During the Peak Summer Months as Greater Use of Air Conditioning Systems Drives Higher Generation From Coal and natural Gas Plants
  
  
  
  

  By Aron Anderson July 1, 2025 -Over the first five months of 2025, U.S. power sector emissions from the burning of fossil fuels were up 5% to around 640 million metric tons, according to data from Ember.

  The roughly 32 million ton rise in emissions from the same months a year ago stems mainly from higher use of coal within the U.S. generation mix, as power firms have so far cut back on natural gas use from a year ago after gas prices rallied.

• • TVA Moves Forward With Grid
  Stability Project At Retired Coal Plant

  TVA Plans to Repurpose Its Retired Bull Run Coal-Fired Plant With Synchronous Condensers For Grid Stability
  
  {FACTOR THIS}
  
  

  June 30, 2025 -As more electricity comes from intermittent renewable energy, maintaining grid stability becomes more challenging as coal plants retire. Synchronous condensers help balance grid inertia by replacing decommissioned power generation equipment, increasing power reliability and redundancy.

  TVA is working with Eaton, who will provide the electrical and mechanical solutions needed to convert one machine comprised of two generators into two 605 mega-volt amperes reactive (MVAR) synchronous condensers.

  Eaton has worked on similar synchronous condenser design and conversion projects. For example, Eaton worked with FirstEnergy on a conversion project at the utility’s Eastlake, Ohio plant back in 2014.

• • EPA Says It Will Delay Pollution Rules for Coal Plants

  The Trump Administration Plans to Delay and Potentially Loosen Water Pollution Rules for Coal-Fired Power Plants
  
  {THE HILL}
  
  

  June 30, 2025 -In a press release, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Monday that it will “propose to extend compliance deadlines” for some of the requirements in a Biden-era regulation.

  The agency also said that it “intends to explore other flexibilities to promote reliable and affordable power generation” but did not specify which parts of the rule it will consider loosening.

• • Eight Utility Regulators Challenge DOE
  Order Keeping Michigan Coal Plant Open

  The Department’s Invocation of Emergency Powers to Interfere With State and Regional Utility Planning is Unprecedented, According to the Challenge.
  
  {UTILITY DIVE}
  
  

  June 26, 2025 -Eight utility commissions in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s footprint are challenging the U.S. Department of Energy’s emergency order to keep a coal-fired power plant running in Michigan past its May 30 retirement date.

  DOE failed to show that emergency conditions exist in the MISO footprint warranting its May 23 order directing Consumers Energy to delay retiring the 1,560-MW, J.H. Campbell power plant in West Olive, the Organization of MISO States said in a June 23 rehearing request to the department.

• • Why Eliminating Coal Could Take a Long Time

  A California Mining and Processing Business is Replacing One Coal Plant But Says Another Could Stay Online For Many Years
  
  
  
  

  June 18, 2025 -Coal use has been declining for decades, but ending the use of the fuel isn’t going to be easy, even in a place like California, which has ambitious climate change goals.

  In the high desert just south of Death Valley, the hottest place on earth, two small coal plants have been running for 50 years. They provide heat and power to Searles Valley Minerals, a mining and processing plant in Trona, Calif., that churns out raw materials used in wind turbine blades, solar panels, pesticides and other products.

• • Trump is Forcing This Dirty, Costly Coal Plant to Stay Open

  The Administration Blocked an Electricity Plant in Michigan From Closing, Overturning a Plan By a Utility and Local Officials
  
  

  June 1, 2025 -An emergency order last month from Washington rattled Michigan regulators: The Trump administration reversed the state’s plan to retire an aging power plant, forcing it to remain open and continue burning coal.

  Michigan and the plant’s operator have mounds of evidence that closing the 63-year-old J.H. Campbell plant on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan won’t create a shortage of electricity. But the Trump administration adopted a different view, claiming the Midwest is overly dependent on intermittent wind and solar power.

• • Trump Touts ‘Clean Coal’ —
  But Cuts Programs that Protect Miners

  A Federal Program that Screens Coal Miners for Black Lung Disease has Been Shuttered Because of Layoffs and Budget Cuts
  
  

  Apr. 21, 2025 -Emory “Curly” Carter sometimes feels like he can’t breathe. Household chores, such as cleaning and gardening, leave him gasping for air, making him feel like he has a “real bad” case of pneumonia.

  After nearly four decades working in underground coal mines, Carter was diagnosed with black lung, a deadly and incurable disease caused by inhaling coal dust over a long period. Now, the 70 year-old worries that the Trump administration’s steep cuts to health and safety programs will endanger the next generation of miners across the coalfields of West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia.

• • Trump Wants to Reverse Coal’s Long Decline

  It Won’t be Easy
  
  

  Apr. 14, 2025 -President Trump last week issued executive orders designed to revive the use of coal in power plants, a practice that has been steadily declining for more than a decade.

  But the effort is likely to fail, energy experts said, because the fossil fuel faces some critical hurdles. The power that coal plants produce typically can’t compete with cheaper, cleaner alternatives. And many plants that burn coal are simply too old and would need extensive and expensive upgrades to continue running.

• • Coal Plant Ranked as Nation’s
  Dirtiest Asks for Pollution Exemption

  The Facility, in Colstrip, Mont., Used a New E.P.A. System For Requesting Special Waivers from President Trump
  
  

  Apr. 2, 2025 -The nation’s most polluting coal-burning power plant has asked President Trump to exempt it from stricter limits on hazardous air pollution after the administration recently invited companies to apply for presidential pollution waivers by email.

  The aging Colstrip power plant in Colstrip, Mont., emits more harmful fine particulate matter pollution, or soot, than any other power plant in the nation, Environmental Protection Agency figures show.