How the AI boom derailed clean‑air efforts in one of America’s most polluted cities

Barbara Johnson, an organizer with Metropolitan Congregations United, has been advocating for cleaner air in North St. Louis for decades, a city known for its poor air quality. Her hopes for improved conditions were dashed when the Trump administration reversed federal soot standards, initially adopted under the Biden administration, which would have required plants like Ameren's Labadie Energy Center to significantly cut emissions by 2027. This rollback is part of broader efforts to ensure the U.S. grid can meet the escalating electricity demand from artificial intelligence data centers. President Donald Trump, last year, issued an executive order titled “Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry,” supporting coal-fired power to satisfy this demand. His administration has since funded old plants, delayed retirements, and rolled back environmental regulations, despite the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's stated commitment to clean air. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that AI and data center growth will add 50 gigawatts of new electricity demand by 2030. Air quality and health advocates across the U.S. view the AI boom and its supportive policies as the primary threat to air quality due to the reliance on dirty power sources like coal. While the number of U.S. coal plants had been declining, this pace has significantly slowed. A coalition of farmers, environmentalists, and homeowners is actively resisting data center expansion, citing concerns over higher power bills and reduced water supplies. St. Louis is expected to be among the cities most affected by these regulatory reversals, largely due to its existing poor air quality and the proximity of the Labadie plant, which is a major emitter of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and soot. Labadie's owner, Ameren Corp, confirmed the plant would operate for at least another decade, stating they have signed service contracts for an additional 2.3 gigawatts of potential peak demand from data centers, including a 1,000-acre Amazon Web Services project proposed for nearby Montgomery County. The Data Center Coalition emphasized that while their members are major purchasers of clean energy, utilities and regulators ultimately make power generation decisions.