EDITORS/NEWS DIRECTORS:
In late March, the Environmental Protection Agency under President Donald Trump announced a series of actions aimed at rolling back landmark regulations designed to reduce emissions, clean the nation’s air, and protect the environment.
The rules EPA wants to eliminate are projected to save more than 30,000 lives and $275 billion each year, according to an analysis by The Associated Press, with about $100 billion of savings coming from coal industry regulations.
The most significant of these rules regulate how much fine particulate matter — tiny airborne particles that can lodge in lungs and cause myriad health problems — should be allowed in the air. They also impose carbon pollution standards on fossil fuel plants, and require that states and other agencies limit how much pollution they’re allowing to drift over their borders.
Some of the rules have been in place for years, though many were written or updated under President Joe Biden and have not yet taken effect because of court challenges or because they are designed to kick in during later years.
Asked for comment on the AP findings, an EPA spokesperson said the agency’s plans would “roll back trillions in regulatory costs and hidden ‘taxes’ on U.S. families.”
This guide is focused on the impacts of coal and offers resources to help you cover this issue at the state and community level in these areas:
— coal reliance (data on what percent of power in your state comes from coal; and we've provided individual, embeddable graphics for each state)
— deaths attributable to coal between 1999 and 2020 (state and plant level data)
— coal ash sites (what they are and where they're located across the country)
— quantifying pollution prevention (data looking at how much pollution would be prevented if EPA rules were kept in place)
— coal facilities that have applied for or been granted exemptions from Biden-era rules
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READ AP'S COVERAGE
Trump’s EPA targets environmental rules projected to save billions — and many thousands of lives
Takeaways from AP examination showing benefits, costs of rules Trump EPA wants to change
How AP calculated the costs and death toll of EPA rule rollbacks
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COAL RELIANCE IN YOUR STATE: DATA AND GRAPHICS
How reliant is your state on coal power? Use this data — collated from the Feb. 2025 update at the U.S. Energy Information Administration — to track coal power units in your state. The data includes retirements and planned retirement dates as well as easy-to-use figures about how much power each state is getting from coal, now and in the past.
Also see the last tab of the spreadsheet for localized graphics on the percent of power in each state coming from coal. Just copy the code in the first cell of your state's column and embed it into your site. Preview one example, for Maryland, here.
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COAL DEATHS, BY STATE AND PLANT
A study in the journal Science, published in 2023, found that particulate matter, or PM2.5, from coal plants is about twice as deadly as particulate matter from other sources. By investigating deaths in the Medicare population (mostly people 65 or older) and where pollution from each plant was likely to travel, the researchers also quantified deaths linked to specific coal-fired power plants between 1999 and 2020. See our Localize It spreadsheet for facility- and state-level data.
Based on this data, you could write:
— The Keystone plant is responsible for the most deaths between 1999 and 2020 of any coal plant in Pennsylvania — researchers attributed between 7,000 and 8,400 deaths in Pennsylvania and neighboring states to its emissions. (This data was found in the plant-specific death totals tab)
— In Pennsylvania, at least 4,700 deaths in 1999 were attributable to the particulate matter from coal power plants, the researchers found. In recent years, that figure has fallen to fewer than 200 deaths. (This data was found in the state and national death totals tab)
Read the full study here, and the news release from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health here.
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COAL ASH SITES NEAR YOU
Also referred to as “coal combustion residuals,” coal ash is a byproduct of producing electricity from coal. U.S. coal plants still produce at least 70 million tons of coal ash each year, according to EarthJustice, which must be disposed of or reused.
After a 2008 coal ash spill in Tennessee released over a billion gallons of waste, the U.S. began regulating coal ash disposal in 2015. But that rule left out older, inactive ash sites — many of which pose even greater risks of toxic leaks, as ponds or landfills lack a lining that helps to keep toxic pollution from spreading into water and soil. Coal ash sites can leach toxics for 70 years and longer. President Joe Biden’s EPA sought to close that loophole in 2024 with a new rule targeting legacy ash sites.
Now, the Trump administration says it will revisit the rule.
According to EarthJustice, an environmental justice nonprofit, the 2024 update could apply to over 900 coal ash sites. The 2015 rule originally covered about 750 dumps at 300 power plants, containing roughly two billion cubic yards of ash. The Biden-era expansion brings another 146 plants under the regulations as well as additional disposal areas at some already-regulated sites.
You can explore EarthJustice’s dashboard of all coal ash sites — both those that fall under the 2015 rule and the ones that would likely qualify under the 2024 update. The underlying data, as of late April 2025, is available in the Localize It spreadsheet. Based on this data, you could write:
— In Alabama, at least 17 coal ash dumps at four different coal plants have to start reporting how much they are polluting under the 2024 rules the Trump administration is targeting, according to research by EarthJustice. Roughly 5,000 people live within three miles of those sites. (To construct this sentence, we added up the ash sites for Alabama in column N, which are those covered by the 2024 Legacy Rule, and then added up the population within three miles for those Alabama plants -- listed in column P -- that had ash sites in column N).
Read AP’s latest coverage of the Trump administration’s intended actions on coal ash.
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COAL PLANTS NEAR YOU: HOW MUCH POLLUTION WOULD BE PREVENTED IF EPA RULES WERE KEPT IN PLACE?
This Sierra Club analysis with an interactive map quantifies the amount of pollution that would be prevented each year if key EPA rules targeted by the Trump administration stayed in place.
Use the drop down menu to select a specific state. Below the map are details on different EPA rules (like the Good Neighbor Plan, hover over it for details on the plan or see more below) and what the reduction of specific pollutants in the selected state would be, if the rules were maintained. The Sierra Club experts advise not to total pollution amounts across the different rules. For example, by filtering to Indiana on this dashboard, you could write:
— In Indiana, the Good Neighbor Plan would prevent at least 1,562 tons of nitrogen dioxide emissions annually — a 39% decrease over current levels — while the Regional Haze rule would prevent 4,045 tons of nitrogen emissions and 11,276 tons of sulfur dioxide. (You cannot add the 1,562 and 4,045 together.)
— About one-third of the people living within three miles of a coal plant in Indiana are low-income, according to the Sierra Club's analysis of census data.
You can also dig down further by looking at individual coal plants. Each circle on the map indicates a single coal plant, but some circles are split into two or more parts and those represent different units at the coal plant; you can see totals across units by selecting multiple with Control + Click. Looking at single coal plants allows you to see the pollution levels that would be prevented in a specific area and the estimated population demographics of that area.
The rules covered by this dashboard are all targets of the Trump administration for rollback or reconsideration.
— The Good Neighbor Plan required states to submit plans ensuring that the coal-fired power plants and other industrial sites within their borders do not add significantly to air pollution across state lines. Read this AP coverage to learn more. The Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that the EPA could not enforce the rule.
— The updated Mercury and Air Toxics Standard published by the Biden administration in 2024 sought to further limit the amount of mercury and other hazardous metals (like lead and arsenic) that power plants are allowed to emit. The more strict standards would primarily benefit communities near to coal-fired power plants.
— The Regional Haze program, implemented in 1999, required states to make plans to improve visibility at national parks and wilderness areas. See the AP’s coverage of the success of the program here. The program’s passage meant coal plants had to reduce their sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions.
— The Greenhouse Gas Standards (111d) passed in 2024 requires existing coal plants that plan to continue operating past 2032 to implement carbon control technology so they reduce almost all of their emissions. Read the AP’s coverage here.
The following two pollutants are considered “precursors” to particulate matter or PM2.5, and coal-fired power plants are major contributors of each:
— Sulfur dioxide (SO2): A pollutant mainly produced by burning fossil fuels like coal and oil. It can irritate the lungs and form harmful particles and acid rain when it reacts in the atmosphere.
— Nitrogen oxide (NOx): Gases that form when fuel burns at high temperatures, especially in cars and power plants. NOx contributes to smog and can irritate the respiratory system.
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FIND PLANTS NEAR YOU: FACILITIES GRANTED OR ENCOURAGED TO APPLY FOR EXEMPTIONS FROM FROM BIDEN-ERA RULES
Outside of formal steps it could take to undo regulations, the Trump administration moved quickly to grant exemptions to power producers and manufacturers, including coal plants, from Biden-era rules.
— The Trump administration granted 68 coal-fired power plants a two-year exemption from the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards Rule (see above for a description of this rule). This rule is targeted at reducing emissions of toxic chemicals including mercury, arsenic and benzene. You can see the list of plants here, and read the AP’s coverage here. Trump’s EPA is also considering rolling back the rule entirely.
— Separately, the administration also invited hundreds of facilities across the U.S. to apply for exemptions to rules, including that same Mercury and Air Toxics Standards Rule. You can see those facilities, which includes 163 coal-fired power plants, at this “pollution pass” tracker by the Environmental Defense Fund. The map is updated with those facilities known to have applied for or received an exemption. Our Localize It spreadsheet also lets you explore those facilities (see tab that says “Exemption from the MATs rule”).
Use this exemption data to compare how coal operators have responded to the Trump administration’s invitation. For example:
At least two coal plants in Mississippi qualified for exemptions from standards that would limit how much mercury and other toxic chemicals they could emit, according to the Environmental Defense Fund. Both received those passes.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
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Localize It is a reporting resource produced by The Associated Press for its customers’ use. Questions can be directed to the Local News Success team at localizeit@ap.org.
