Air Pollution and Public Health

A Wall Street Journal analysis of publicly available Environmental Protection Agency data finds that pollution from U.S. power plants rose in 2025, breaking a long‑running downward trend. Sulfur dioxide emissions from power‑plant stacks increased about 18%, nitrogen oxides rose 7%, and carbon dioxide climbed 4%, changes the report links in part to greater coal use for electricity generation at a handful of large plants. Those pollutants drive both local air‑quality problems and long‑term climate change, so the reversal has implications for federal and state climate targets, utility planning and health outcomes, especially in downwind communities. The findings land just as the Trump EPA has revoked the greenhouse‑gas endangerment finding and the administration is directing federal agencies to buy more coal‑fired power, raising questions about whether policy shifts and market forces are pulling in opposite directions on emissions. Energy analysts and advocates online are already seizing on the figures as evidence that relaxing climate rules and supporting coal can quickly show up in hard pollution data, even after years of clean‑power gains.