Impacts from Coal-Fired Power Plants
The toll from coal
Coal-fired power plants are the largest industrial polluters in the United States. The air pollutants from power plants – carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, small particles, mercury, and other air toxics – harm public health, causing unhealthy levels of soot and ozone smog. This air pollution contributes directly to health consequences including respiratory issues, cardiovascular effects, and premature death, along with economic and societal risks like loss of work and school days.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the legal obligation to regulate these emissions under the Clean Air Act, and strong emissions standards are key to minimizing these harms.
Mapping health and economic impacts from
coal-fired power plants
Using 2024 data, CATF modeled nearly 200 facilities that emitted thousands of tons of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, both which expose people across the country to harmful soot and smog. This interactive map explores the negative health impacts of power plant emissions by state and county, with data on the attributable deaths and other health and economic risks associated with coal-fired power pollution.
Click here to view a full screen version of this map.
The public health toll of DOE’s misuse of its emergency authority
In 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy issued a series of orders to force several aging and highly polluting coal plants to continue running beyond their planned retirement dates, despite the economic and health costs associated with keeping the plants operating. This unlawful use of the agency’s emergency authority will be detrimental to the health of communities living near these plants.
The map also includes the human health costs of continued operation of plants that had reported planned retirement dates between 2025 through 2028, but either have been or may be ordered to stay open by the U.S. Department of Energy’s 202(c) orders under the Federal Power Act.
Methodology
CATF has tracked emissions and adverse health consequences from coal-fired power plants since 2000. This tool uses 2024 emissions of SO2 and NOx reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Air Markets Program. Emissions of direct PM2.5 and VOCs are derived from reported heat input data and unit-specific emission rates. COBRA v5.2 was used to model emissions from each power plant. Please see additional information on the methodology here.
