Sierra Club analysts handed F grades to 76 of the largest U.S. electric utilities for a second consecutive year in the environmental group's "Dirty Truth Report," released Tuesday and built on data current to mid-2026.

The report tallies a string of worsening indicators. Utilities now plan to retire just 25% of their coal-fired capacity by the end of the decade, down from 35% in 2023. Planned new gas plants climbed to 140 GW by 2035, up from 72 GW in 2023. And for the first time in the report's six-year history, planned new clean energy capacity fell year over year.

"Utilities' failure to plan, combined with unprecedented load growth, is hitting us," said Emma Pabst, Sierra Club Beyond Coal campaign manager and report co-author. She warned of "more extreme weather, higher electric bills, higher insurance premiums, and more disaster costs passed on to families."

Coal: closures slipping backward

The Sierra Club tracked coal-retirement commitments across the 76-utility sample. The 25% closure figure for 2030 trails 29% in the 2025 report, 30% in 2024, and 35% in 2023.

The report singles out Ameren Missouri and PacifiCorp's Rocky Mountain Power as operators running coal plants with rising costs and environmental harm. Pabst attributes the reversal to a utility business model that monetizes capital investment. "Utilities make a lot of money on fossil fuels," she said. Most earn regulated returns on dollars spent on new power plants and gas pipelines and pass fuel-price spikes through to ratepayers.

Gas: 140 GW on the drawing board

New gas-fired capacity in utility plans hit 140 GW by 2035 — enough to supply roughly one-quarter of average U.S. electricity demand, much of it earmarked for AI data centers. The figure has risen each year: 118 GW in 2025, 93 GW in 2024, and 72 GW in 2023.

The report flags Duke Energy, Entergy Louisiana, Northern Indiana Public Service Co., Georgia Power (a Southern Co. subsidiary), and Wisconsin's We Energies for outsized gas-buildout plans.

Clean energy: first annual drop

Planned solar and wind additions now cover only 25% of utilities' combined fossil-fuel generation and expected load growth by 2035. The equivalent ratio stood at 32% last year and 52% in 2024.

"The Trump administration has been putting up pretty significant barriers against developing more clean energy," said Noah Ver Beek, Sierra Club senior energy campaigns analyst and report co-author. He cited blocked federal permits for solar and wind, cancelled offshore-wind leases, and continued federal use of airspace authority to stall onshore wind despite a court order barring that practice.

Backsliding on climate pledges

Thirty-one of the utilities Sierra Club tracks — 41% — have weakened climate commitments since the start of the second Trump administration. The administration's pro-fossil-fuel posture, Ver Beek said, has given more utilities license to renege.

Household electricity prices rose at twice the rate of inflation last year. Pabst placed part of the blame on aging coal and increasing reliance on gas, alongside grid expansion and wildfire mitigation costs.

What decides what happens next?

State public utility commissions — not federal policy — set the terms under which investor-owned utilities deploy ratepayer-funded generation. Pabst called on those commissions to force utilities to add more solar, wind, and batteries and to abandon "the things they're used to — which are dirty, polluting fossil fuels." The report functions as a benchmark those commissions can cite when they vet integrated resource plans later this year.