How the AI boom reversed clean air gains in one of America’s most polluted cities

The demand for electricity from the artificial intelligence boom and new data centers is threatening air quality in cities like St. Louis, Missouri, by slowing the retirement of coal-fired power plants and reversing environmental regulations. Activists, including Barbara Johnson of Metropolitan Congregations United, express frustration as federal soot standards, previously adopted under the Biden administration and set to take effect in 2027, were rescinded by the Trump administration in February. These standards would have required Ameren’s Labadie Energy Center, a major local polluter in North St. Louis, to significantly reduce emissions. The U.S. Department of Energy forecasts a 50-gigawatt increase in electricity demand by 2030 due to AI and data centers. The Trump administration has taken steps to support coal-fired power by allocating funding for old plants, delaying retirements, and loosening environmental regulations. This policy shift is expected to disproportionately affect St. Louis, which already ranks poorly in air quality. The Labadie Energy Center is a significant contributor to pollution, with its emissions estimated to cause $5.5 billion in economic burden annually. Ameren, which operates within federal pollution limits, plans to keep the Labadie plant running for at least another decade. The company has also signed contracts for an additional 2.3 gigawatts of demand, including for a large Amazon Web Services data center project. This has sparked opposition from a coalition of farmers, environmentalists, and homeowners concerned about increased power costs and water supply reductions, particularly impacting predominantly Black neighborhoods in North St. Louis that already suffer from high soot pollution.