Oh, Thank God!!! Proposals In Motion For More Than 100 New Power Plants In TX, Because AI [View all]

If anybody was still worried about what might happen with the planet's climate, well, you can stop worrying now.

Companies plan to build more than 100 new gas-fired power plants in Texas in the next few years amid a race to meet enormous electrical demand from energy-hungry industries, according to a report released Wednesday by the Environmental Integrity Project, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit. The projects would amount to 58,000 megawatts of new generation capacity, enough to power more than 8 million average American households, although many likely won’t move past the planning stage. The report said proposed plants in Texas aim to support data centers for artificial intelligence and other heavy industries. They would also add an estimated 115 million metric tons of greenhouse gases every year to the atmosphere–as much as nearly 27 million more gasoline-powered cars on the road.

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The research reviewed permit applications, government data, public announcements and records from Texas’ grid operator to tally 108 proposed new gas plants and 17 expansions. That includes four projects currently under construction, 33 that have received permits but haven’t broken ground and 98 that are proposed. More than 60 projects aim for completion by the end of 2028. The rapid buildout mirrors a global trend and comes as Texas authorities expect statewide power demand to nearly double by 2030, driven largely by a proliferation of advanced computing facilities.

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While natural gas burns much cleaner than coal, it still creates soot and emissions including greenhouse gases that warm the planet, nitrogen oxides that contribute to ozone formation, and known human carcinogens like benzene and formaldehyde. The Environmental Integrity Project report found, in some cases, Texas allowed developers of large gas power plants to circumvent big parts of the permit process for major pollution sources. Companies underrepresented prospective emissions in their applications and then sought “standard” permits meant for smaller facilities rather than new “major source” permits, the EIP report found. Major source permitting requires more time for public notice and comment and companies must commit to the best available emissions control technology.

One example cited by EIP: EmberGreen and EmberYork, related companies that received permits for two 900 MW gas plants in the towns of Sealy and Wharton. The permit applications represented the facilities’ emissions as below the thresholds of major pollution sources for carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and formaldehyde when assuming 3,900 hours of operation, or about 162 days, per year. However, EIP wrote, the facilities’ permits contained no requirement to limit operations to 3,900 hours per year, or to report operating hours. Likewise, a 930 MW gas plant by ENGIE in Robstown received permits as a minor source assuming 2,000 hours of annual operation. But its permit also included no limitations of operating hours. The state’s environmental regulator, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), has routinely enabled industrial developers to avoid the requirements of major source pollution review by issuing smaller permits, according to a 2023 investigation by Inside Climate News and the Texas Tribune.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11062025/texas-gas-plant-boom-ai-data-centers/