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

Summary

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.At the same time, colder winter temperatures led many buildings and homes to burn more natural gas and fuel oil for heating last year.The jump in emissions came as President Trump returned to office and moved to dismantle policies to tackle climate change while promoting fossil fuels. But the researchers said Mr. Trump’s policies would take time to have an effect and they mostly weren’t responsible for last year’s rise in emissions.“We don’t see a large emissions impact in 2025 from the Trump administration’s actions, although we obviously expect those to have an increasing impact as we go forward,” said Michael Gaffney, a research analyst at the Rhodium Group. “The main story here was partly weather and partly a growing power sector that’s burning more coal.”That growing demand for electricity is itself a new shift. For much of 2000s and 2010s, America’s overall electricity use stayed roughly flat. But in recent years, demand for power has started surging amid a boom in data centers, an upswing of domestic manufacturing and the spread of electric vehicles.Last year, electricity demand grew by 2.4 percent nationwide, with the biggest increases in Texas, the Mid-Atlantic and the Ohio Valley.To keep up with demand, electric utilities turned to a fuel that had fallen out of favor: coal. For two decades, America’s electric utilities have been switching away from coal, the most polluting of fossil fuels, in favor of cleaner and often cheaper gas, wind and solar p...