Coal Pollution Spiked After Trump Administration’s “Free Pass to Pollute”
EPA data shows that sulfur dioxide pollution from coal plants increased 18 percent in 2025, with the plants that were given presidential exemptions leading the way.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – New data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows that pollution from coal plants spiked 18 percent last year, with those plants that were given a presidential exemption surging on average almost twice as much as their counterparts.
“President Trump gave coal plants a free pass to pollute, and they took him up on the offer,” said Amanda Levin, director of policy analysis at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). “With no cop on the beat to make sure the owners of these plants ran their pollution controls effectively, they ignored the health of their surrounding communities to save a few bucks on their costs. The rest of us will pay with our health.”
Levin examined the 2025 power plant emissions data, which the EPA quietly posted on its website this month. It shows that sulfur dioxide pollution increased by the second most it ever has over the last 30 years—only behind the post-COVID snapback in 2021.
The increase in sulfur dioxide emissions indicates that these plants also spewed more toxic pollutants like mercury out of their smokestacks. This pollution increased more than the plants increased their power generation, a sign that the plant owners dialed back or turned off the pollution controls on their plants more last year.
NRDC and its partners have sued to block the unlawful presidential exemptions issued after the Trump administration invited power plants to email in their requests for permission to get an exemption from pollution rules.
NRDC’s director of policy analysis, Amanda Levin, explains how coal plant pollution surged across the country last year, thanks to Trump’s presidential exemptions, and how that has subsequently created billions of dollars in public health costs for local communities.
Levin’s analysis of EPA data found:
- According to EPA data, sulfur dioxide emissions increased by 18 percent last year, the second-most over the past 30 years, since the EPA started tracking the data. Only 2021 was more. The emissions increase was greater than the increase in power production from those plants, meaning that the average coal-fired electron itself was dirtier than in 2024.
- This pollution fell by 7 percent in 2024 before the Trump administration took office.
- The 71 U.S. coal plants that sought and received a presidential exemption from the Mercury and Air Toxics standards increased their sulfur dioxide emissions over 71,000 tons, a 24 percent increase in that pollution.
- The rest of the U.S. coal fleet increased their emissions by 12.6 percent, half that of the exempted plants, the EPA data shows.
- Texas saw the biggest spike in sulfur dioxide pollution from power plants last year—with emission increasing by more than 20,000 tons year-over-year. And this extra pollution can be tied to the six power plants that received presidential exemptions.
- The six Texas power plants that received presidential exemptions, collectively, increased their sulfur dioxide emissions last year by 48 percent year-over-year based on EPA’s data– while all other plants in the state actually saw their sulfur dioxide emissions decline by 22 percent. In total, these six exempted plants reported increasing their sulfur dioxide emission by more than 27,500 tons in just one year, producing a total of almost 85,000 tons of sulfur dioxide—more pollution than emitted by any other state’s entire power fleet. The public health cost from just these six plants’ pollution: $8.8 billion.
- The total sulfur dioxide pollution from these six exempted plants contributed to 667 premature deaths just last year, according to NRDC using the EPA’s analysis tools.
- Nationwide, sulfur dioxide emissions are down more than 90 percent over the past 30 years, as EPA standards made coal plants filter the pollution spewing out of their smokestacks. Sulfur dioxide is responsible for acid rain, regional haze and can harm lungs, according to the EPA. Sulfur dioxide pollution has only increased a few times over the past 30 years.
While Texas had the highest increase in emissions, many of these trends occur in other states as well: exempted plants in Missouri increased their emissions by 18 percent, while non-exempted plants decreased their sulfur dioxide emissions by 14 percent; in Kentucky, exempted plants saw a greater increase in SO2 emissions (27 percent) than non-exempted (15 percent); and the only facility in Tennessee to report any increase to its emissions rate for sulfur dioxide was one of the three exempted facilities.
“This data shows why NRDC’s lawsuit over these exemptions is so important,” Levin said. “We need these standards to stay in place—and the EPA to police them—in order to protect our health and that of our families.”
Please note: The EPA data must be downloaded from its website. That can be done here. NRDC has a copy of an Excel sheet with all the data. Please contact us if you would like to get it.
Additional Resources:
A Free Pass to Polluters: Presidential Exemptions Using the Clean Air Act
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).