Power plants in North Dakota emit a combined 27.1M metric tons of CO₂ per year. The table below ranks the top emitters — predominantly coal and natural gas plants. Emission rates vary widely even within the same fuel type: efficient combined-cycle gas plants produce roughly 900 lb CO₂/MWh, while older coal plants can exceed 2,200 lb/MWh.
Emissions data comes from the EPA eGRID program. Zero-emission sources (nuclear, solar, wind, hydro) are excluded from this ranking. For methodology details, see the methodology page.
| # | Plant | State | Fuel | CO₂ (tons/yr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Coal Creek | North Dakota | Coal | 7.2M |
| 2 | Antelope Valley | North Dakota | Coal | 5.9M |
| 3 | Milton R Young | North Dakota | Coal | 5.5M |
| 4 | Leland Olds | North Dakota | Coal | 4.1M |
| 5 | Coyote | North Dakota | Coal | 3.2M |
| 6 | Lonesome Creek Station | North Dakota | Natural Gas | 655.1k |
| 7 | Pioneer Generation Station | North Dakota | Natural Gas | 308.3k |
| 8 | Spiritwood Station | North Dakota | Natural Gas | 61.9k |
| 9 | American Crystal Sugar Hillsboro | North Dakota | Coal | 56.2k |
| 10 | American Crystal Sugar Drayton | North Dakota | Coal | 26.0k |
| 11 | R M Heskett | North Dakota | Natural Gas | 23.6k |
| 12 | Tesoro Mandan Cogeneration Plant | North Dakota | Other Fossil | 10.8k |
| 13 | Jamestown | North Dakota | Oil | 1.5k |
| 14 | Kindred School | North Dakota | Oil | 27 |
| 15 | Hillsboro | North Dakota | Oil | 12 |
PowerPlantsNearMe.com. (2026). Most Polluting Power Plants in North Dakota. Derived from EIA Form 860, EIA Form 923, and EPA eGRID. Retrieved from https://powerplantsnearme.com/most-polluting-power-plants/north-dakota
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