Labadie

And it's kind of outside of St. Louis, but I feel like I'm gonna tell you why it's all worth going.

So in Labadie, Missouri, which is right outside of Washington, it's right next to, is the Hawthorne Inn.

Their food is incredible, and anybody I have ever, ever recommended to go there or taken there or whatever, it's like we are hooked.

And the chef is actually used to be at the Ritz 'cause he actually cooked for my friend at her wedding, and they make this coconut cream pie.

STLPR's Kate Grumke reports they were there to condemn Ameren's plans to meet growing demand from data centers with coal and natural gas.

[bat hits pinata] [children yelling] Patricia Schuba swings a wooden baseball bat at a pinata that is supposed to look like the Labadie coal plant.

Schuba lives near the facility in Franklin County.

She was angry to see Ameren's latest 20-year plan, which extended the life of the Labadie plant and added more natural gas plants to its portfolio.

We thought we were moving toward clean energy, um, and all of a sudden we have data centers, and data centers are fueling this deregulation that has put our community back at risk.

Schuba joined more than 50 protesters Saturday in a demonstration calling for lower bills and cleaner energy.

But people who live near the sites say their health is being sacrificed.

Patricia Schuba leads an environmental group in Labadie, Missouri.

She also lives near a coal plant.

We should be concerned about the risk that this plant poses to all of us, and it's in the form of heart disease, lung disease, cancer risk.