Air permit docs: new gas projects linked to just 11 US data center campuses could emit 129M+ tons of greenhouse gases per year, more than some small countries
A WIRED review of permits for data center projects using natural gas and linked to OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft …
WiredMolly Taft
Context & Ripple Effects
Related coverage shows a sharp escalation in data-center-linked gas development: Global Energy Monitor identified more than 97 GW of US gas-fired capacity explicitly earmarked for data centers in 2025, versus 4 GW in 2024. This permit review puts emissions estimates on a smaller, named set of campuses tied to major AI and cloud buyers.
The story also extends an existing conflict around Meta’s Louisiana plans and its net-zero commitment. It makes the power source—not only the scale of AI compute—a central exposure for Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI-linked infrastructure.
First-order effects
The 11 campuses’ associated gas projects face greater scrutiny from communities, environmental groups, and permitting stakeholders because their disclosed potential emissions are substantial.
Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI become more directly associated with the emissions consequences of the generation built to support their data-center demand, even where the projects are operated by separate power developers.
Second-order effects
Power developers and data-center operators may face harder permitting, siting, and disclosure conversations, adding execution risk to projects intended to relieve AI-related power constraints.
The gas-turbine supply crunch already reported in related coverage can compound this pressure: scarce equipment and contested permits both make gas-backed capacity less straightforward to deliver.
Third-order effects
If dedicated fossil generation remains a major route to serving AI load, access to power will increasingly be governed by environmental legitimacy and permitting durability alongside land, interconnection, and hardware availability.
The pattern tests whether large technology companies can expand compute infrastructure while maintaining climate commitments; sustained divergence could reshape how customers, policymakers, and investors assess AI infrastructure plans.
The trend: AI data-center expansion is turning electricity procurement into a strategic and social-license constraint, with the emissions profile of new generation becoming part of compute execution risk.
“Yes, our data center emits more greenhouse gases than the entire country of Jordan, but don't worry, this is just a temporary measure until AI* invents new energy sources for us.” — www.wired.com/story/new-ga...
NEW: I've been shocked by some of the numbers I've been seeing on behind-the-meter power plants for data centers, so I did a little math. — less than a dozen gas plants being built to power data centers for big tech companies could emit a maximum of nearly 130 million tons of C…
www.wired.com/story/new-ga... Emissions estimates from air permit documents show that natural gas projects being built to power data centers to serve some of the US's most powerful AI companies have the potential to emit more than 129 million tons of greenhouse gases per year.
New gas-powered data center projects linked to OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, and xAI could emit more greenhouse gases than entire nations, according to a @wired.com investigation from @mollytaft.com — happy earth day, don't miss this one!
www.wired.com/story/new-ga... A WIRED review of permits for data center projects using natural gas and linked to OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, and xAI shows they could emit more than 129 million tons of greenhouse gases per year....
This is one reason why a narrow political focus on how data centers affect ratepayers is probably a bit shortsighted; if a campus is emitting more carbon than Croatia that's not good even if it's not driving up the electric bill of kitchen table working families concerned about a…