It\u2019s among a handful of similarly colossal ventures announced during 2025 that have made Texas the global epicenter of a gas power buildout, according to data released Thursday by Global Energy Monitor (GEM).\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMassive fossil fuel infrastructure is being developed, often directly at the source of gas supply, in order to feed speculative AI demand,\u201d said Jenny Martos, project manager for GEM\u2019s Global Oil and Gas Plant Tracker.<\/p>\n
Developer Fermi America applied for air permits<\/a> in August for 6 GW of gas power to supply data centers at its planned complex near Amarillo. In November, Chevron announced<\/a> plans to build its first-ever power plant, which would produce up to 5 GW of power for artificial intelligence in West Texas.<\/p>\n These are enormous volumes of energy, enough to power mid-sized cities. During 2025, the pipeline of gas power projects in development in Texas grew by nearly 58 GW of generation capacity, according to the GEM report, more than the peak power demand of the state of California.\u00a0<\/p>\n Only China, with 50 times the population and 15 times the land, has more gas power projects in development than Texas, the GEM report said. Nearly half of all upcoming gas power projects in Texas, totalling 40 GW of capacity, are planned to directly power data centers, the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere is just an explosion of these things,\u201d said Griffin Bird, a research analyst who tracks gas plants for the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project in Washington, D.C. \u201cWe\u2019re having such a tough time staying on top of new projects.\u201d<\/p>\n The planned hyperscale facilities of north and west Texas, if fully built out, could be among the largest emissions sources in both the country and the world, Bird said.<\/p>\n Pacifico\u2019s GW Ranch in Pecos County is authorized to release more than 12,000 tons per year of regulated air pollutants, according to permitting documents from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, including soot, ammonia, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n The complex can also release up to 33 million tons per year of greenhouse gases, according to permitting documents, equal to nearly 5 percent of the total annual greenhouse gas emissions<\/a> of Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gas plants planned at Fermi America\u2019s Project Matador would release up to 24 million tons per year of greenhouse gas.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d be hard-pressed to think of a bigger emitter,\u201d Bird said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Many gas power projects for data centers with up to 500 MW of capacity\u2014enough to power more than 200,000 homes\u2014have received permits from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality within a month, Bird said.\u00a0<\/p>\n For example, Misae Gas Power applied for permits<\/a> to install 206 gas generators totaling 519 MW of capacity at a data center outside San Antonio on Dec. 23. TCEQ granted the permit <\/a>on Jan. 14, authorizing emissions including 133 tons per year of toxic particulate matter and 10 tons per year of cancer-causing formaldehyde.<\/p>\n The TCEQ did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent Wednesday evening.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the tiny town of Blue, about 50 miles east of Austin, the TCEQ issued a permit in October for the 1.2 GW Sandow Lakes Power Plant, which is located nearby North America\u2019s largest Bitcoin mining facility<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Neighbors in the rural community organized a group called Move the Gas Plant <\/a>and formally requested a hearing from TCEQ on the air pollution permit that would authorize nearly<\/a> 18 tons per year of hazardous air pollutants\u2014substances known or suspected to cause cancer, birth defects, reproductive issues or other serious health problems. TCEQ denied their request and issued the permits at a public meeting in October.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt took them literally 45 seconds to bring it up and deny our request for a hearing,\u201d said Travis Brown, spokesperson for Move the Gas Plant and a retired state Department of Agriculture employee. \u201cThere was essentially zero discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n Shortly after, Sandow began construction at the site, about four miles from the home where Brown and his wife feed deer and other wildlife in the woods of rural Lee County.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re going gung-ho out there,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ve cleared that site and bulldozed trees, installed housing for workers and power lines.\u201d<\/p>\n Texas currently has 11 gas power plant projects under construction, according to GEM data. It has 102 projects under preconstruction\u2014acquiring land, permits and contracts. Another 28 projects have been announced.\u00a0<\/p>\n If all those plants are built, it would more than double Texas\u2019 current gas power generation capacity.<\/p>\n Pacifico\u2019s GW Ranch, if operated at full 7.65 GW capacity, could consume between 1 and 2 billion cubic feet of gas per day, according to calculations by Gabriel Collins, a researcher at Rice University\u2019s Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston. That\u2019s equal to between 4 and 7 percent of gas produced in 2025 from the Permian Basin, one of the world\u2019s most prolific shale plays.\u00a0<\/p>\n This story is funded by readers like you.<\/p>\n Our nonprofit newsroom provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going. Please donate now to support our work.<\/p>\n
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