Power plants in South Dakota emit a combined 2.9M 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 | Big Stone | South Dakota | Coal | 1.7M |
| 2 | Deer Creek Station | South Dakota | Natural Gas | 507.7k |
| 3 | Astoria Station | South Dakota | Natural Gas | 251.0k |
| 4 | Angus Anson | South Dakota | Natural Gas | 177.1k |
| 5 | Groton Generation Station | South Dakota | Natural Gas | 98.5k |
| 6 | Bob Glanzer Generating Station | South Dakota | Natural Gas | 48.8k |
| 7 | Lange Generating Station | South Dakota | Natural Gas | 25.8k |
| 8 | Aberdeen Ct | South Dakota | Natural Gas | 25.2k |
| 9 | Spirit Mound | South Dakota | Oil | 9.8k |
| 10 | Poet Bioprocessing- Mitchell | South Dakota | Natural Gas | 6.4k |
| 11 | Poet Biorefining - Hudson | South Dakota | Natural Gas | 6.3k |
| 12 | Watertown Power Plant | South Dakota | Oil | 6.0k |
| 13 | Ben French | South Dakota | Natural Gas | 4.1k |
| 14 | Lake Preston | South Dakota | Oil | 124 |
| 15 | Ft. Pierre | South Dakota | Oil | 44 |
| 16 | Faulkton | South Dakota | Oil | 19 |
| 17 | Valley Queen Cheese | South Dakota | Oil | 14 |
| 18 | Clark (Sd) | South Dakota | Oil | 10 |
PowerPlantsNearMe.com. (2026). Most Polluting Power Plants in South Dakota. Derived from EIA Form 860, EIA Form 923, and EPA eGRID. Retrieved from https://powerplantsnearme.com/most-polluting-power-plants/south-dakota
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