BIG READ | Power-hungry US data centres imperil residents and environment

Barbara Johnson, a community organizer in North St. Louis, Missouri, and other activists have been fighting coal pollution for decades. Their hopes for cleaner air were recently dashed when the Trump administration reversed federal soot standards, which had been set to go into effect in 2027 under former President Joe Biden. These tougher standards would have forced Ameren's Labadie Energy Center power plant, a major polluter located 65km west of St. Louis, to significantly cut its emissions or face closure. The Trump administration's rollback of environmental regulations, including delays in plant retirements and funding to keep old plants running, is explicitly linked to the surging electricity demand from data centers and the AI boom. The US Department of Energy estimates AI and data center growth will create 50GW of new electricity demand by 2030. This policy shift prioritizes grid capacity over clean air efforts, effectively nudging coal-fired power back into prominence. St. Louis is expected to be among the cities most impacted by these regulatory changes due to its already poor air quality, ranking 475th out of 501 US metro areas, and the Labadie plant's high emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and soot. These emissions contribute an estimated $820 million annually in health costs to St. Louis area residents. While Ameren states the Labadie plant operates within existing limits and will run for at least another decade, environmental experts and local activists, like Patricia Schuba, argue that the true cost to health negates any perceived affordability of electricity. Amidst this, Ameren has signed contracts to supply an additional 2.3GW of peak demand from data centers, with more requests pending. This includes a major 404-hectare Amazon Web Services development proposed for Montgomery County, Missouri, which will be powered by Ameren. A coalition of farmers, environmentalists, and homeowners has united to resist data center expansion, citing concerns over higher power bills and reduced water supplies, but their efforts are ongoing. The Data Center Coalition emphasizes that utilities and policymakers, not data centers, are ultimately responsible for power generation decisions.