> The agency’s efforts to boost coal are likely to generate far more sulfur dioxide pollution than Make Sunsets will release with its balloons. A Make Sunsets balloon released on November 15, 2024, released 1,715 grams of sulfur dioxide. In 2023, U.S. power plants released 650,000 tons into the atmosphere, the majority of which came from coal. That’s approximately the same amount as 343,900,000 of the startup’s balloons.