"Trump administration rolled back clean-air rules to support AI-driven electricity demand. St. Louis faces poor air quality and high health costs as coal plants remain online."
"Barbara Johnson has been fighting coal pollution for decades in her mostly Black neighborhood of North St. Louis as an organizer with Metropolitan Congregations United – one of many activist groups campaigning for cleaner air in a city that has some of the country’s dirtiest.
Until recently, Johnson had reason to believe things would improve: tougher federal soot standards adopted in 2024 under the Biden administration were scheduled to go into effect in 2027, requiring plants to slash emissions or shut down. That would have forced one of the area’s biggest polluters - Ameren’s Labadie Energy Center power plant - to cut its soot emissions in half to stay in business.
Johnson’s hopes vanished in February, however, when President Donald Trump’s administration scrapped the standards before they took effect as part of broader efforts to ensure the nation’s grid can meet surging demand from data centers. Now she wonders if she’ll ever get to see the changes she’s been fighting for since her youth."
Valerie Volcovici and Tim McLaughlin report for Reuters April 10, 2026.
