Environmental nonprofits released research showing that datacenter growth, driven largely by AI workloads, is forcing US utilities to keep aging coal-fired power plants online longer rather than retire them, slowing the energy transition. The slowdown in coal-plant retirements contradicts years of declining emissions as electricity demand from datacenters outpaces supply. A case study from Omaha shows utilities choosing to extend coal plant operations to meet growing demand from nearby server farms.
Infrastructure
Datacenter boom keeps dirty coal plants alive in the US
AI datacenter expansion is forcing US utilities to keep aging coal plants online longer, undoing years of emissions progress and slowing the energy transition.
Wednesday, April 22, 2026 12:00 PM UTC2 MIN READSOURCE: The RegisterBY sys://pipeline
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