The Numbers Come First
The artificial intelligence buildout is demanding electricity on a scale the regulated grid cannot deliver fast enough — and developers are filling the gap with fossil fuel. A BloombergNEF analysis tracked by Bloomberg News counts 99 proposed natural-gas power plants built specifically to serve data centers. Run at an industry-standard 60% utilization rate, those plants would emit roughly 318 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. The entire U.S. electric power sector emitted about 1,485 million metric tons last year, according to Energy Information Administration data. The arithmetic is straightforward: one slice of data center infrastructure could lift U.S. power-sector emissions by 20% — and by as much as a third if the plants run continuously.
The 126 gigawatts of planned on-site gas generation tracked by BloombergNEF spans 22 states, from Alaska to Georgia. More than a third of the projects sit in Texas, where abundant oil and gas resources and a historically permissive regulatory environment made it the default destination for developers racing to meet AI demand. Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently announced a pause in data center approvals.
Amazon, Microsoft, and West Texas
The scale becomes concrete in Pecos County. Cleanview, which tracks U.S. power infrastructure, identified Amazon as the developer of an 8,000-acre site in Pecos County that will rank among the largest single sources of carbon pollution in the country. About 30 miles to the west, Chevron is building Microsoft a gas plant to power a data center complex on a 2,000-acre site. Together, the two plants could generate more than 10 gigawatts — enough to power New York City on a hot summer day — with combined annual emissions potentially reaching 45 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalent, according to regulatory filings. That figure is slightly less than half the cumulative emissions of Washington state, where both companies are headquartered.
Spokespeople for Amazon and Microsoft say their climate goals have not changed. Amazon is exploring solar and battery storage options at the west Texas site.
Behind the Meter, Ahead of the Grid
The urgency driving these decisions is real. The data center boom has already strained the U.S. electricity system, triggering reliability concerns and moratoriums on new project approvals. Even approved facilities face yearslong delays connecting to regulated grids. So developers are turning to behind-the-meter projects — plants that can be permitted and built without utility or independent system operator approval. 'There is immense, immense pressure on the whole sector to get power, and get it fast,' said David Pomerantz, executive director of the Energy and Policy Institute. 'They're sort of agnostic if it is clean or dirty.'
Not every plant in the BNEF dataset will be built. The AI investment rush has generated phantom projects and long-shot pitches alongside genuine development. Single-cycle gas generators — dirtier than combined-cycle plants — are now among the most common types planned, largely because a yearslong backlog for turbines makes the cleaner option unavailable.
The Market Has Already Voted
The story here is not a climate morality tale — it is a capital-allocation story. When regulators and grid operators cannot move fast enough to connect new supply, private developers route around them. That is free enterprise doing what it does: finding the path of least resistance to meet demand. The consequence, a 20% potential rise in power-sector emissions, is a direct cost of regulatory bottlenecks and permitting delays that have made the clean-energy queue unworkable. Policymakers who want a different outcome should look first at the rules that made gas the fastest option, not at the companies that followed the incentives those rules created. Capital rewards clear rules — and right now, the clearest rules in American energy point straight to a gas turbine in west Texas.
