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
WiredMolly Taft
Context & Ripple Effects
The permit disclosures follow a sharp expansion in gas generation explicitly earmarked for U.S. data centers: Global Energy Monitor identified more than 97 GW in the 2025 pipeline, versus 4 GW the prior year. The scale makes individual campus power plans a material part of the sector's infrastructure footprint rather than a back-end procurement detail.
The story also lands as the EIA prepares a mandatory nationwide data-center energy-use survey and local opposition has already delayed or blocked projects. Emissions associated with onsite or dedicated generation add a concrete permitting and community-impact dimension to the buildout.
First-order effects
The 11 named campus-linked power projects face more visible emissions exposure in permitting, public review, and stakeholder scrutiny; data-center developers and their generation partners must account for that exposure alongside capacity needs.
The disclosures make the carbon consequences of gas-backed data-center power easier to compare across projects, strengthening the factual record available to regulators and local opponents.
Second-order effects
Developers seeking fast, dependable powered capacity may face longer or more contested approval processes where projects rely on new gas generation, increasing the value of alternatives that can demonstrate lower local and climate impacts.
The forthcoming EIA survey could connect site-level power demand to a broader national dataset, raising pressure for clearer reporting by operators, utilities, and dedicated-power suppliers.
Third-order effects
If gas-backed campus power continues to scale, AI infrastructure will be treated increasingly as utility infrastructure with associated emissions, permitting, and public-accountability obligations—not merely as commercial real estate.
A widening gap between urgent capacity requirements and local acceptance could become a core compute execution risk, with project viability depending on power sourcing as much as on construction and hardware deployment.
The trend: The AI data-center buildout is turning power procurement into a public infrastructure and social-license issue, particularly where rapid capacity additions are tied to fossil generation.
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…
“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!