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Investors balance Iranian and Chinese demand as copper claws reach a three-week high
On Friday, copper prices reached their highest level in over three weeks as investors weighed up signs of increased demand from China's top metals consumer against the uncertainty surrounding a fragile ceasefire during?the Iran War. In official open-outcry trade, benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.6% to $13,755 per metric ton and reached its highest level since March 17, at $12,845. The week was expected to close with a gain of about 4%. LME copper rose 1.2% after the official rings, when a Federal Reserve official stated that a rate reduction was possible if oil prices fell. LME copper is up 10% since March 23 when it fell to its lowest level in three months on hopes that the Middle East war would end. Ole Hansen is the head of commodity strategy for?Saxo Bank, Copenhagen. He said: "I do not think that there's a desire to invest in commodities where there's a risk of deterioration?ahead?of those negotiations in Islamabad." Investors were cautious as a fragile ceasefire agreement between the U.S., Iran and other countries that has been in place for two weeks showed signs of strain on Friday. This was a day before negotiations are scheduled to take place in Pakistan. Markets were supported by signs that demand was improving in China. Copper inventories in SHFE-monitored warehouses fell 11.5% in the past week after falling 37% in the last three months. Data showed that the Yangshan copper price premium, which represents demand for copper imported to China, has risen to $73 per ton. This is its highest level since June of last year. Hansen explained that "even though there is concern about Iran, actual numbers on the ground point the opposite direction. The market tries to navigate between these two elements." He added that the key technical resistance to the upside is $12800. This is based on the retracement of February and March, as well as the?50 day moving average. The copper price rose to its highest level since December 2013 despite a new increase in LME inventories. LME aluminium official activity rose by 1.1% to $3,482.50 per ton as the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz brought to light?supply problems in the Gulf which account for?about 8% of the global production. Nickel gained 0.5% at $17,175 while tin increased 0.7% to 48,000.
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The Lithium Bulls are set to crash the Copper Party in Chile
Chile will break from 'precedent' and host a panel on lithium at its annual global gathering of copper next week, in an effort to radically diversify its economy beyond the red metal which has been?powering it for decades. On Monday, the World Lithium Conference, organized by the International Lithium Association and the consultancy 'CRU', will launch what the copper industry calls CESCO Week. After months of stagnation, lithium prices have risen to levels not seen in two years as renewed interest in the metal is sparked by concerns about oil supplies in the Middle East. The lithium supply is tightening as a result of the closing of a major mine in China, the export ban in Zimbabwe and the dwindling stocks in lithium carbonate. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Chile is home to 13 million tonne of lithium, the third largest in the world after Argentina and Bolivia. NEW PRESIDENT, NEW EXPECTATIONS Five mining companies including Rio Tinto are vying for rights to develop the country's vast deposits. The new Chilean president, Jose Antonio Kast is spoilt for choices. Ignacio Mehech is CEO of CleanTech Lithium. He said, "The lithium strategies rolled out by 2023 were a good direction. We hope the new government will take it up, and make?it easier and faster to award contracts." CleanTech, a London-listed company, has received a licence to produce lithium. However, it needs to obtain an environmental permit before mining. It is raising money to build a $750m mine at the edge of the rich lithium-rich Salar de Laguna Verde. DEMAND FOR MORE MINE AND MORE MINES According to CRU, there is a strong movement behind lithium. The number of active mining operations has doubled in the last four years, and will reach 80 mines by 2026. Martin Jackson, CRU's director of lithium and batteries, stated that the demand for stationary lithium batteries is continuing to increase, which helps to offset the weakness in EV markets. He said that lithium will continue to be the most competitive energy-density technology for many years. According to CRU the average lithium carbonate price in China is expected to be around $22 per kilo this year. This represents a 135% increase from last year. Investors are also optimistic. Macquarie, an investment bank, estimates that global lithium demand is expected to increase by over 20% a year until the end of this decade. This will be due to energy storage demand. Asad Farid is the director of?J's strategic materials equity funds. Safra Sarasin Sustainable Asset Management. US-CHINA TENSIONS WEIGH Chile's diversification of its lithium industry comes at a moment when tensions between China, the U.S. and other natural resource rich regions like South America are "spilling over". China's share of the global lithium market has increased steadily over the last four years from 75% to almost 90%. The Guangzhou Futures Exchange lithium price has become a benchmark for the industry. Chile has already tasted the diplomatic balancing act that is required when it pursues the China Mobile-backed fiber-optic connection between the wine-town of Valparaiso, and Hong Kong, despite U.S. opposition. "With President Trump's current approach, we may have to think twice about going for Chinese investors," said Marcelo Adwad. A mining veteran from Chile, he advises?Wealth Minerals a Toronto Stock Exchange listed lithium company. Wealth Minerals has been in talks with India’s state-run Coal India Limited regarding a possible joint venture and is seeking investors for its $750m lithium mine. Some people believe Chile should maintain its neutrality. Mehech, CleanTech's CEO, said that Chile could not afford to pick one country. Reporting by Fabian Cambero in Toronto, Divyarajagopal in London, and Tom Daly, with editing by Veronica Brown and Ernest Scheyder.
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As US rate-cut betting rises, gold is set to gain for a third consecutive week but will edge lower.
The gold?prices dipped, but remained on a?track to a third consecutive?weekly - gain, as the markets reassessed if there would be a U.S. rate cut if the fragile U.S. - Iran ceasefire held. By 1113 GMT, spot gold was down 0.2% at $4755.45 an ounce. This week, it has risen by 1.7%. U.S. Gold Futures for June Delivery fell by 1.1% on Friday to $4,767.30. Dollars were set to drop by 1.4% per week, which made bullion in that currency more affordable for holders of currencies other than the dollar. The UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said that the announcement of the ceasefire caused the market to sell oil, causing inflation expectations to fall. Rate cuts were also priced in this week. Inflation and rate cuts are in question Oil prices rose on Friday, driven by concerns over disruptions of Saudi Arabian supplies. Still, they faced a?a 12% drop in one week. This is the biggest weekly fall since June 2025. The spot gold price has dropped about 10% since the beginning of the war against Iran on February 28. High energy prices have led to expectations of inflation and higher U.S. rates of interest, which is a disincentive for holding non-yielding gold. According to CME's FedWatch Tool (a tool that tracks interest rates), investors expect at least one rate reduction by December, up from just 12% in the previous week. The conflict in the Middle East will continue to influence the system. Staunovo stated that he still had a positive outlook for the long term because of all 'the structural factors which remain in place. Iran's near-total blocking of the Strait of Hormuz is not lifting. Tehran cites Israel's ongoing attacks on Lebanon which included the most heavy strikes of the war on Wednesday as the sticking point. The markets are also focusing on the March U.S. Consumer Price Index, which is due later that day, for further clues about the?Fed?s monetary policy. In India, gold demand has risen slightly. Premiums in China have decreased as the retail market in China slowed. (Reporting by Ishaan Arora in Bengaluru; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Jan Harvey) (Reporting from Bengaluru by Ishaan arora; Editing by Barbara Lewis & Jan Harvey).
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SpaceX's $1.75 Trillion price tag: An unconventional rationale
Wall Street uses some unconventional yardsticks in order to value 'Elon Musk’s SpaceX. One of SpaceX's largest institutional investors benchmarks the rocket and satellite firm not against aerospace competitors like Boeing or telecom titans like AT&T but against AI infrastructure players like GE Vernova, Vertiv and Palantir Technologies in a bid justify a $1.75 billion valuation ahead of the biggest IPO ever. A source familiar with SpaceX's thinking described the framework to me?for the very first time. It illustrates the unusual challenge of valuing a company without obvious public competitors - and how far Wall Street will go to justify a premium valuation. SpaceX filed for a U.S. IPO in secret, according to a report last week. As previously reported, the company will hold an analyst's day on April 21. SpaceX's potential $1.75 trillion valuation is expensive by most traditional measures. This includes comparisons with the earnings and revenues multiples of firms that are often used as references for its business. Boeing and Lockheed Martin's joint venture United Launch Alliance, which competes with SpaceX for launch services, are the peers in space. AT&T, Verizon and other internet service providers would be the peers in this case. Financial backers of SpaceX, which is on track to raise 75 billion dollars in an IPO in this year, argue that comparisons with established firms in legacy industries miss the point. They say SpaceX and Musk's other companies are positioned to benefit from long-term "secular economic shifts" at a time where few competitors have the ability to do so. Musk's companies are known to command high multiples, in part due to?investors betting on him personally. Tesla is the most obvious example. And SpaceX investors anticipate that this dynamic will carry through into any public offering. SpaceX CFO Bret Johnson told IPO banks on a recent conference call that it was "pretty exciting" to be able to sell into the "largest total addressable market" in human history - a $370 billion potential space business. According to the sources, Bret Johnsen estimated the market potential for Starlink's internet service as $1.6 trillion. SpaceX has not responded to a comment request. RETHINKING COMPARABLES The fierce debate about the price of SpaceX's massive IPO is centered on finding the right comparables. Bankers and investors are struggling to determine the value of the company, despite the fact that there are few or no closely comparable public counterparts. Investors and bankers often sort comparables by industry, based on the assumption that this is a good way to measure financial risk and opportunity. Many investors believe that companies need not be in the same sector to be comparable. They say it is more important for them to compare cash flow, growth and risk profiles. According to this approach, a better comparison is made with companies that are selling into AI data-center buildsout. These companies have been famously rewarded by rising share prices and high multiples. Jay Bala said that the?calculus for smaller funds is different. AIP in Toronto manages assets of?approximately $100 million, with a significant portion concentrated in SpaceX. "I am piggybacking the biggest funds in the universe. Due diligence has been carried out in great detail. "I'm not going second-guess the world's biggest investors," he said. He admitted that it was difficult to get detailed financial information on SpaceX. "You only can get so much." Sometimes it's difficult to get numbers. STARLINK VERSUS STAR TELECOMS Starlink, or what SpaceX refers to as its "connectivity business", is compared with legacy telecom companies. However, some investors claim that these comparisons have been skewed due to aging infrastructure, saturated markets in the United States, and years of modest revenue growth. I wouldn't consider AT&T or Verizon to be very relevant for the Starlink economic model, even though both companies are in the business to provide communication, said a senior executive from one of SpaceX’s largest institutional investors, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the work was confidential. Palantir is a better choice for SpaceX investors because of its high returns on capital invested, good margins, and asset-light structure. These qualities, say fans, justify the high multiples that the stock commands, and indicate greater opportunities in the future. Palantir, a well-known stock in the market that trades at 43 times revenue expectations and 75 times earnings, is known for being one of the most expensive stocks. Skeptics claim that these levels are unsustainable. However, SpaceX supporters say that they are achievable if backed up by exceptional financial performance. According to PitchBook, Palantir, with a market cap of $1.75 trillion would still be cheaper than SpaceX on these measures, as it would trade at 110x revenue estimates for 2025. "Investors should size positions with the understanding that they are paying a platform premium today for infrastructure-monopoly economics tomorrow," PitchBook analyst Franco Granda said in a note ?last month. ROCKET MANUFACTURING COMPARISONS SpaceX investors argue that for the rocket manufacturing part of the business, the firm's achievements - such as the fact it built a reusable system, drove down unit costs drastically and expanded into a market where the demand for launch capability continues to grow - demand valuations much higher than those at Lockheed. Lockheed traded recently for around 20 times the expected earnings for next year. Boeing's high multiples reflect the fact that it is a?turnaround story. They instead turn to industrial names like GE Vernova or Vertiv whose stock has soared due to AI data-center expenditure, arguing that SpaceX launch operations should be re-rated to "picks-and-shovels" in the data-center era. These preferred comps are not very similar to SpaceX. GE Vernova traded at around 30x expected cash flow, and four times revenue last year. Vertiv, a company that sells cooling and power equipment for data centres, was recently traded at 19 times the expected operating profit, and 6 times sales last year. MESSY PRICES AND RATIONALIZATION Investors and bankers say that SpaceX is difficult to price due to the unique nature of its space operations and AI businesses, which are difficult to value in an early stage. Aswath?Damodaran, finance professor and valuation expert at New York University Stern School of Business, said: "Pricing will always be messy." "Nobody has the capacity to launch satellites at such a low price and in such large numbers as they do. That's their biggest advantage." He says that the current price is a reflection of investors' justifications for purchasing the shares, rather than traditional metrics. They're hoping that there is enough momentum and mood behind SpaceX and, when it goes public in the future, this will drive the stock price up. "They have already decided that SpaceX will be a good buy," Damodaran stated. "Now they are looking for a way to justify this, and the pricing is that exposed rationalization."
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UK gilts fall sharply as oil prices rise again
The price of British government bonds fell for the second consecutive day on Friday, as oil prices rose again amid concerns about the damage caused to Saudi Arabia's energy infrastructure by the Iran War. Long-dated gilts suffered?the largest?drops. The performance of gilts was below that of similar U.S. debt, German debt and French bonds. This reflects Britain's vulnerability due to the fallout caused by rising energy costs. Britain is heavily reliant on natural gas, and its public finances are stretched, making it difficult to provide state support. Long-dated gilts have been increasingly hurt by fiscal worries The 20-year bond yield, which moves in the opposite direction to the price of the bond, was up by?8 basis point on the day, at 1018 GMT. This is on track for a?small?weekly rise after having fallen on Wednesday following news of the ceasefire between Iran & the United States. The?optimism of the ceasefire holding provided a modest lift to Friday's?shares, but the?global bonds markets were hit by the rising oil prices following a report that Saudi Arabian energy facilities had been attacked. The Strait of Hormuz is also largely closed to tanker traffic. Emma Moriarty is a portfolio manager with CG Asset Management. She said that spikes in gilt yields have become more common in recent years, as the UK's economy has been left vulnerable by high public debt levels and anaemic growth. She said that inflation-linked bonds performed better than conventional gilts, unlike the "mini budget" crisis in 2022 that was driven by concerns about the fiscal cost of former Prime Minister Liz Truss’ tax?cutting plans. Investors have been willing to pay more than usual for inflation-protected bonds, especially at the'short?end' of the curve, where our funds are located, Moriarty stated. The yields on short- and medium-dated bonds were up 5-7 basis points in the past day. (Reporting and editing by Sharon Singleton: Andy Bruce)
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Big Tech invests in next-generation nuclear power as AI demand soars
Big Tech has reshaped the funding landscape of new nuclear technologies. It is seeking to boost electricity supply for power hungry AI data centers. Deals are being signed that offer both?funding for nuclear companies and a more clear path to make money. A number of?U.S. The U.S. is developing modular reactors which are smaller, more advanced and more scalable than conventional nuclear power plants. But no commercial electricity has been produced yet due to challenges like financing and unique risks. The sector is gaining momentum due to the need to provide enough energy to power the data centers in the face of the growing demand for AI. Meta has agreed to fund the construction of two Terrapower units that can generate up to 690 MW. Meta has also signed an?agreement with Oklo for the development of a nuclear technology campus capable of generating 1.2 GW in Ohio. Amazon is partnering with X Energy to bring more than 5 GW in small modular reactors online by 2039. Alphabet’s Google, meanwhile has signed an agreement to bring its first modular reactor online by 2030. Shioly Dong is a senior analyst at BMI Solutions, a division of Fitch. She said, "They provide the certainty of revenue that commercial banks require to finance construction debt." Investors interested, but cautious According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. electric use is expected to rise by 1% in this year and by 3% next, mainly due to data center demand. Tim Winter, Gabelli Funds portfolio manager for the Gabelli Utilities Fund, (GABUX), said that small modular reactors have emerged as a more viable nuclear alternative because of their modular size and shorter construction timelines. He also added that he closely monitors companies such as NuScale, and Oklo. The industry needs someone to assume the risk of cost overruns or delays. He added that the degree to which hyperscalers will do this will determine "just how much (these agreements) give the sector". Bonita Chester, Oklo's spokesperson, says that AI is driving customers to sign long-term contracts which can help fund project development. According to the agreement between Meta and Oklo, funding is provided?to secure nuclear fuel, as well as advance the Ohio project's first phase. Some institutional investors are also interested in the prospect of long-term buyers, as the sector has traditionally relied on government funding and venture capital. Tess Carter is the associate director for the energy and climate practice of Rhodium Group. She said, "We've heard that banks are interested in making deals in this space. That would be a major development. We haven't yet seen that." The industry, which analysts and experts call "advanced nucleic", still faces many obstacles, such as high construction and technological risks. Institutional investors are interested but have not yet invested in the sector on a large scale. The Nuclear Scaling Initiative recently released a report that noted the looming shortage of skills and the competition for workers with other industries, including data centers. Chester, from Oklo, said that "demand alone is not enough to accelerate commercialization for advanced nuclear." (Reporting and editing by Saumyadeb Chkrabarty; Kavya Balaraman)
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Kremlin denies that the visit of Putin's envoy to the US means Ukraine talks are back on track
The Kremlin announced 'on Friday that the visit of Vladimir Putin’s special investment envoy to the United States did not mean that negotiations on a possible peace deal for Ukraine have resumed. According to sources familiar with the visit, it was reported that Kirill Dimitriev, Putin’s envoy in the U.S., met members of President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday for discussions about a peace agreement and U.S.-Russian economic cooperation. When asked about this matter, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said to reporters: "Kirill Dmitriev does not negotiate a settlement in Ukraine and?this not a resume of the negotiations." "Kirill is the head of 'the group for economic issues. He continues to work in this group." Putin announced on Thursday a 32-hour truce over two days for Orthodox Easter Sunday. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, his Ukrainian counterpart, said that Kyiv will adhere to the measure. Peskov - who has stated that peace talks have been halted because of events in the Middle East - said 'the ceasefire is humanitarian in nature, and that Russia wants a proper peace deal, not just a ceasefire. Peskov stated that "we do not want a ceasefire. We want peace. A lasting, sustainable peace." As President Putin said in the past, Russia does not just 'want a peace deal. Peskov stated that "this 'peace' can be achieved today, if President Zelenskiy takes the right decision and is responsible." Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, Anna Peverieri and Andrew Osborn.
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Kemcore is planning to build mining chemical plants on the continent of Africa in an effort to reduce imports
Kemcore, an African mining chemicals importer, is planning to build its processing plants in?Botswana?and Angola?to reduce the geopolitical risks associated with imports from China?and the Middle East?. Africa is an important supplier of minerals that are critical to the energy transition. It's also a battlefield for the United States, as Washington tries to curb Beijing's dominance by securing the supply chains. Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo are the two countries that dominate Africa's production of copper, while Congo is the world leader in cobalt. This puts the central African copperbelt right at the center of the minerals competition for energy transition. ?Chemical inputs such as sodium metabisulphite and sulfuric acid, which are used to extract these metals, have to be imported. This exposes miners to supply disruptions - including geopolitical risks, most recently the war in Iran. Calisto Radithipa, founder and chief commercial officer of Kemcore, said that the sulphuric acid price in Tanzania's Dar es Salaam port is higher than usual after the war interrupted sulphur shipments. Radithipa stated that Kemcore Botswana's?plant? will be operational by?middle next year and feed copper and cobalt to producers in Zambia, and Congo. The facility will produce SMBS and sodium hydrosulphide, as well as flotation collectors like xanthates - chemicals used to process copper and cobalt ores. The facility is expected to produce 57,500 tonnes annually by 2027 and ramp up to 250,000 tons in 2032, which will be around 25% of Africa’s demand. Kemcore CEO Godfrey Johnson revealed that the total project costs are $103 million. A large part of this funding will come from Africa. Johnson said that some U.S. agencies had also shown early interest in investing, as Washington tries to loosen China’s grip on Africa’s mining industry. Johnson?added that no commitments had yet been made. He declined to name the firms. Washington will be focusing on partnering with countries to support transparency in their mining sector. This includes local processing when it is economical. Johnson stated that Kemcore's goal is to capture 25% of the $500 million African metals market. Local production will reduce costs for miners. A facility in Angola, already funded by the company and linked to a project for rare earths, is also being developed. The facility will produce a total of?88,000 tonnes of sulfuric acid per year and 50,000 tonnes caustic lime. Johnson stated that "Africa can't continue to export raw materials and import the products required to process them." The raw materials, customers and technology are all here. (Reporting by Maxwell Akalaare Adombila & Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
How AI has sabotaged clean-air initiatives in one of America’s most polluted city
Barbara Johnson, an organizer for Metropolitan Congregations United in North St. Louis' mostly Black neighborhoods, has been fighting coal pollutants for decades. The group is one of many activist groups that are campaigning for cleaner pollution in a city with some of the dirtiest air in the nation.
Johnson believed that things would get better because the federal soot standard, adopted by Biden in 2024, was scheduled to take effect in 2027. This meant that plants had to reduce emissions or close. Ameren Labadie Energy Center, one of the region's largest polluters, would have been forced to reduce its soot emission by half in order to remain in business. Johnson's hopes were dashed in February when the Trump administration, under President Donald, scrapped the standards prior to their implementation as part of an effort to ensure that the grid could meet the surge in demand from data centres. She wonders now if she will ever see the changes that she has been fighting for from her youth.
Johnson, 75, said: "You take two steps forward and four steps back." "I'm used to this backwards tendency, but how many generations before these positive changes become permanent?" Trump's rollbacks on AI are a reversal of U.S. environment policy, and a painful reality for America's environmental activists. After years of pushing coal to the sidelines, the rise in power-hungry power centers has pushed the most polluting source of electricity back onto the stage. Trump issued a presidential executive order titled "Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry", which stated that coal-fired energy was essential to meet the increase in electricity demand caused by the construction artificial intelligence data centers. Since then, he has provided funding for old plants to continue operating, issued orders delaying plant retirements and rolled back the environmental regulations regarding mercury and other toxic substances to save plants from expensive upgrades.
In an email statement, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stated that affordable baseload energy, including coal, was essential to keep the lights on in American homes and heat them. "EPA is dedicated to ensuring that all Americans have clean air, regardless of their race, gender or creed."
U.S. Department of Energy predicts artificial intelligence and the growth of data centers will generate 50 gigawatts of electricity by 2030. This is a nearly 4 percent increase over the 1,300 gigawatts of electricity produced by U.S. power stations in 2025.
For this article, we interviewed 20 air-quality activists and health-advocates. All of them agreed that the AI boom and policies supporting it are the greatest threat to U.S. Air Quality due to the need for energy from dirty sources such as coal. According to EPA data, over the last decade, the number U.S. coal power plants that provide energy for the grid and other 'industrial operations' has dropped from 400 to 200. This pace of growth has now slowed dramatically.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, only four plants with a combined capacity of 2.6 gigawatts will be retired in 2025, while 94 plants that produced 15 gigawatts did so in 2015. This is because the DOE issued an emergency order keeping these plants online. Farmers, environmentalists, and homeowners are united in their opposition to data-center expansion, out of fear for the impacts. These include higher power bills, reduced water supply, or even a liability for Republicans during November's midterm elections. Trump has secured voluntary agreements with big tech companies that will pay for their power requirements and shield American consumers against higher bills. However, his administration has yet to announce steps to address health effects from increased pollution.
According to interviews and data from the government, St. Louis is likely to be one of the U.S. Cities most affected by regulatory rollbacks. This is primarily because it has poor air quality, and its proximity to the massive?Labadie facility.
According to the Air Quality Index of the EPA, only one third of the time in the past year did metro St. Louis residents breathe "good" quality air. St. Louis ranked 475th out of 501 large and small U.S. metropolitan areas in terms of air quality. According to EPA and scientific studies, the Labadie Energy Center has a major contribution.
According to EPA statistics, the plant is a sprawling facility located around 40 miles west of the city. It produces the most sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxidation among U.S. Coal Plants.
According to an analysis of the EPA’s Co-Benefits Risk Assessment tool (COBRA), pollution costs up to $5.5 billion per year. Residents of St. Louis are responsible for about $820 millions of these costs.
COBRA measures the cost of health care, such as hospital visits, and how much people are willing to collectively pay for cleaner air, which lowers their risk of dying prematurely.
The analysis was shown to two experts outside the company - Bryan Hubbel a senior researcher at the non-profit group Resources for the Future, and John Graham a scientist with the environmental research group Clean Air Task Force. Both agreed that the figures were correct.
Ameren Corp., the utility based in St. Louis that owns Labadie, has not contested the analysis of EPA data.
Ameren stated that the plant is operating within federal pollution limits. Ameren says Labadie's operation will continue for another decade, as the demand for artificial intelligence-driven data centres outpaces cleaner energy.
Craig Giesman said that Ameren employees "live here, raise their families here, and rely on energy like our neighbors." "This is only one of the many reasons why we are committed to operating responsibly, protecting public health, and providing reliable power, especially during times when it's most needed."
The EPA declined comment on a COBRA analysis, but stated that it is updating its cost-benefit modelling tools.
According to a scientific study conducted by researchers from the University of Washington, and published last year in the Journal of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology, St. Louis was the city that would be most affected by the delay of tougher standards for U.S. coal plant emissions. Biden's regulation could have forced Labadie, to remain in operation, to reduce its soot emission by over half. According to EPA's cost-benefit analysis for 2023, these soot limitations would have resulted in net benefits to public health of up to $3 billion by 2037.
Since then, the EPA has reversed its course. The agency said that the estimates of the Biden administration were exaggerated and that current standards provide an "ample margin of safety" to protect public health.
St. Louis Clean Air activists have a different perspective.
Darnell Tingle is the director of United Congregations of Metro-East - another activist network. "We're trying to prepare our communities for these data centres and minimize their impact on them."
Cheap Power
North St. Louis' predominantly Black neighborhoods already have some the worst air pollution in the city. According to an analysis of data tracked and analyzed by the EPA, tiny particles of soot that can penetrate the brain or lungs regularly exceed federal safety standards in North St. Louis. This is due to pollution from industrial sources, as well as pollution from nearby highways, and rail operations.
According to the NAACP 78% of African Americans reside within 30 miles of coal-fired plants, compared with 56% of white non-Hispanics. According to a study published in Environmental Science & Technology, soot pollution caused by power plants kills African Americans 25% more than the average.
The logic is that the United States needs cheap electricity. If you consider the increase in healthcare costs in the St. Louis region, this isn’t cheap," said Patricia Schuba. Schuba runs a local environment group that monitors Labadie, as well as three other coal-fired plants.
Ameren was forced to upgrade Labadie due to stricter pollution standards. Ameren upgraded Labadie about a decade back to meet the Obama-era limits on soot.
Ameren, in a letter to the EPA requesting an exemption for March 2025, said that older controls would have had to be retrofitted on the remaining boilers. Ameren refused to answer any questions regarding the cost of upgrading the plant.
As developers begin to build major data centers around St. Louis and the region, regional electricity demand is increasing.
Ameren said that it had signed service contracts for an additional 2.3 Gigawatts in peak demand potential from data centers, roughly equivalent to the Labadie Plant's output. It also stated that there are more requests coming. Amazon Web Services has proposed a 1,000-acre data center project in rural Montgomery County about 55 miles away from Labadie. Ameren would provide the power.
Amazon has declined to comment.
Data Center Coalition, the trade group for the data center industry, said that its members were among the largest purchasers of clean power but that utilities and grid operators ultimately are responsible for what consumers use.
The data center industry has a strong interest in supporting the development of a 21st century electrical grid. However, it is important to remember that decisions about resource planning and generation are made by grid operators and policymakers and not large load users like data centers.
(source: Reuters)