For the first time in decades, Iowa has increased its generation of coal power.
Iowa, the nation’s “most wind-powered state” increased its generation of coal power for the first time since 2000, Inside Climate News reports. “The Iowa Nuclear Energy Task Force, convened this year by Gov. Kim Reynolds, has attributed the growth in electricity demand to data center development and the expansion of manufacturing facilities,” Anika Jane Beamer writes for Inside Climate News.
The two largest electric utilities in Iowa increased their generation of coal power from 2024 to 2025 — coal went from making up 21% of the resource mix to 27% at one utility, and jumped from 12% to 20% at the other. Josh Mandelbaum, an Iowa-based senior attorney with the Environmental Law and Policy Center, said when the demand for energy outpaced states’ clean energy infrastructure, coal was often used to fill the gap.
Peter Thorne, a professor of occupational and environmental health at the University of Iowa, told Inside Climate News that Iowa’s coal processing plants are significant sources of mercury, nitrogen and fine particulate matter that exacerbates asthma and underlying lung and heart disease.
Read the full story: As Power Demand Rises, a Clean-Energy State Falls Back on Coal
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For the first time in decades, Iowa has increased its generation of coal power.
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