US greenhouse gas emissions increased by 2.4% in 2025 after two years of decline. The rise was driven by very cold weather, which led to a nearly 7% jump in home natural gas use for heating. At the same time, coal use jumped by 13% to meet higher electricity demand. This demand was partly due to the rapid growth of data centres and cryptocurrency mining in states like Texas and Ohio Valley. Solar power also grew sharply by 34%, the fastest growth since 2017, but it was not enough to offset the increases from fossil fuel use. Transport remains the largest source of emissions, though emissions there stayed flat thanks to more hybrid and electric vehicles, with hybrid sales up 25%. Michael Gaffney from Rhodium Group, who led the analysis, said, "The grid decided to meet that additional load this year, in part with renewables, in part with fossil but because of higher natural gas prices, there was some fuel switching that saw marginally more coal than there was in 2024." Jesse Lee from Climate Power said, "Higher natural gas prices means that finally, coal, which had been kind of driven to extinction by low natural gas prices, well [gas is] now so expensive that coal's worthwhile again. And that's what is allowing coal to make this comeback." Coal power generation in the US had fallen by 64% since 2007, making last year's rise only the second increase in a decade. Many coal plant retirements slowed as electric companies delayed closures. Despite President Trump's efforts to roll back climate policies and boost fossil fuel production, the Rhodium Group noted these moves "didn't meaningfully impact" the rise in emissions in 2025. However, some argue that Trump's policies on natural gas exports and support of data centres contribute indirectly to emissions growth. The growing energy needs from data centres and crypto mining are likely to continue, suggests Gaffney: "This is a response to the demand growth in the sector, a lot of it is coming from data centres, cryptocurrency operations, other large load customers, and that demand growth is here to stay."