Coal sees renewed demand as US plant bidding war escalates amid AI power crunch

It’s official: Data centers are slowing America’s shift away from coal

AI data centers drove a 13% coal surge, raising U.S. power emissions 4% despite renewables—halting decarbonization progress. Tech leaders face carbon compliance risk: data centers' always-on demand makes coal economically viable, driving infrastructure costs until grid capacity scales with AI workloads.