An independent research firm called the Rhodium Group reported that the United States increased greenhouse gas emissions by 2.4% from 2024 to 2025. They attribute the increase to a combination of data centers, a cold winter, and the increase of natural gas prices.
Carbon dioxide and methane emissions have dropped by 20% between 2005 and 2024, with few examples of year-over-year growth in that time period; the decline can be attributed to clean energy efforts.
A cold winter in 2025 meant more energy was used to heat homes and run data centers, while the rise in natural gas prices increased the use of coal power. While some might blame the Trump administration’s policies, they haven’t been in effect long enough to notice by 2025.
This report comes out at the same time as the Environmental Protection Agency rolls back rules that consider the economic cost of human health in their assessments. The new rule change weakens regulations on fossil fuel power plant turbines, no longer assigning a dollar value to the benefits their regulations bring.
The EPA is still considering health benefits but is reevaluating the way in which the dollar value is assigned. Exposure to particles emitted from power plants are linked to a variety of health complications, which have been curbed by past EPA regulations. The agency previously estimated that 230,000 lives and billions of dollars were saved by their regulations.
Despite the increase in emissions, renewables still make up a large portion of the American power grid, about 42%. Renewable energy is oftentimes more cost efficient than fossil fuels, making the shift towards legacy fossil fuel sources disintegrated from the direction the rest of the world is headed energy-wise.