A boom in artificial intelligence infrastructure is raising environmental concerns in Texas, according to a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP).
With more than 100 new gas-fired power proposals under review, the state faces a notable uptick in air pollution, even as clean energy alternatives remain underutilized.
What Happened: The EIP report, published Wednesday, lays down the environmental risks created by a series of proposed gas power plants designed to supply electricity to data centers, which require staggering amounts of energy.
The Hill reports that more than 30 of these projects have already received permits, which the report claims were granted without much scrutiny. The facilities are mostly located around major urban hubs like Houston, the I-35 corridor, and West Texas oilfields.
Once developed to scale, these plants could emit pollution on par with 27 million additional vehicles, essentially doubling Texas' current fleet.
"To meet its increasing demand for electricity, Texas should be encouraging more clean energy instead of feeding public subsidies to dirty fossil fuels," said Jen Duggan, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project.
Why It Matters: The emissions from these gas plants are likely to include cancer-linked chemicals such as benzene, ozone and nitrogen oxides that aggravate asthma, and PM 2.5, which are fine particles that reach deep into the lungs as per the report.
Despite their size, the EIP alleges that Texas regulators have misclassified at least three large facilities as minor polluters under the Clean Air Act, which exempts them from using the most advanced pollution controls.
Driven by crypto mining, data center expansion and oilfield operations, the state's energy demand is rising. Earlier this year, Texas lawmakers failed to pass legislation that would curb renewable energy growth.
"Everything is supposed to be bigger in Texas, but there's no need to go big with gas plant pollution when there are cleaner alternatives," said Adrian Shelley, Texas director at Public Citizen. "Texas is already number one in clean energy, which helps save the electric grid and reduce consumer costs, so we should rely on clean energy to increase our supply of electricity."
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