US Gas Power Expansion for AI Data Centers Doubles in Six Months, Overtaking China

Data Centers Are Driving an Alarming Gas Power Expansion in the US

The amount of gas-fired power in development for data centers in the US has nearly doubled in less than a year, new research released Tuesday shows. The findings illustrate just how heavily tech companies are relying on building private fossil fuel plants to power data centers -- and how fast artificial intelligence's energy demand has grown. Global Energy Monitor, a research firm, has been tracking gas-powered projects that have been announced, are in development, or are under construction in the US. In January, the group found that there were 97 gigawatts of gas projects in development exclusively for data centers at the end of 2025, a massive increase from just 4 gigawatts tracked in early 2024. Now, in an update to the research released Tuesday, the group says that as of mid-2026, that demand pipeline has jumped to more than 189 gigawatts. (A gigawatt can power roughly a million homes.) "Increasingly, the US gas power buildout is getting tied directly to the data center buildout -- you can't talk about one without the other," says Jenny Martos, a research analyst at Global Energy Monitor who worked on the report. Over the past two years, data center builders have increasingly turned to private power facilities, known as behind-the-meter plants, to bypass lengthy grid connection times. This approach can also potentially help avoid saddling ratepayers with higher bills, an issue that's become a flashpoint as data center opposition mounts around the country. The Trump administration has encouraged tech companies to bring their own power, introducing a voluntary pledge that's been signed by the likes of Microsoft, Meta, Google, and OpenAI, as well as several Republican governors and some of the country's biggest utilities. Adding that much natural gas power comes with a hefty climate cost, particularly because many of the facilities are being built with inefficient turbines, which can increase emissions. As WIRED has reported, some of these gas plants are permitted to emit more greenhouse gases each year than many small- and medium-sized countries. Global Energy Monitor also tracks energy projects in countries around the world, including China, the world's largest importer of natural gas. Much of that gas is used for producing products like fertilizer and plastic. But the country does have a modest fleet of natural gas plants, and it's seen a surge in gas-fired facilities under development in recent years. In the early 2020s, it even outpaced the US in gas plant construction. The data center boom means that the US has again surpassed China as the country with the most gas projects in the pipeline, according to Global Energy Monitor. The shift illustrates how China, which the Trump administration has repeatedly emphasized as the US's rival in the AI race, is relying less on gas fueled-sources in its data center buildout. "Overall, the data center boom in China is really oriented around renewables," especially solar and hydropower, says Kyle Chan, a fellow at the Brookings Institution. Many data centers being built in China are being sited in rural areas that have an excess of renewable energy production. Chan says that while there have been a few attempts to develop private power for data centers, they're "smaller projects." He adds that the Chinese buildout of renewables on the grid is a deliberate choice by the government to ensure energy independence. The US building gas power for data centers "in the near term might make sense economically, and especially if you want to power these data centers fast, and you don't have access to the same kind of cheap renewable energy that you might be able to have in China," he says. "But over the long term, you pay a price for that -- obviously, in terms of emissions, but also, I think in terms of not investing in your own clean energy sector." Not all of the projects that Global Energy Monitor tracked will get built, Martos notes. Many of the projects the group has tracked haven't yet begun construction. "There's a lot of uncertainty: financing, your local opposition, data, your moratoriums, the turbine constraints to supply equipment -- there's so many factors," she says. Still, "if all of these get built, you're locking in emissions for decades," she says.

US building twice as much gas-fired capacity as China in AI boom, analysis finds

There has been a 76% increase in under-construction gas-fired projects amid 'frenzy' to build more datacenters The US has surged ahead of China in the building of new gas-fired power generation, largely to feed a boom in artificial intelligence (AI) that is adding vast amounts of planet-heating emissions, a new analysis has found. For decades, China's rapid economic growth has seen it outpace the US in the addition of new gas power generation but a recent "frenzy" in datacenter construction for AI has reversed this, said Global Energy Monitor (Gem) in its new report. The US is now building twice as much gas-fired capacity as China, and more than any other country in the world, after a stunning 76% increase in under-construction projects in the first half of this year. When adding announced and pre-construction projects, the US is building nearly three times as much as its fellow global economic powerhouse. Since January, gas power capacity in overall development in the US has ballooned by 50%, rising from 252GW to 378GW - a third of the global total. If all of these projects are ultimately built, the US will increase its gas fleet by around two-thirds at a capital cost of more than $647bn, Gem found. Around half of the new capacity is directly tied to a rash of upcoming datacenters that require a huge amount of electricity to handle the increased demand from AI. Using gas, a fossil fuel that is dangerously overheating our planet, rather than renewables to power this glut of new datacenters threatens to increase US power emissions by as much as 20%, according to one estimate. "Six months ago, China had more gas plants under construction but that has now flipped," said Jenny Martos, a project manager at Global Energy Monitor. "There has been an enormous surge in datacenter proposals powered by gas in the past year and the climate implications of that is huge. Building all of this gas for AI locks in decades of pollution and it is also locking in dependence on a volatile fuel cost, which will get passed down to rate payers." Donald Trump and others in his administration have repeatedly claimed that China, the world's largest carbon polluter, is expanding its fossil fuel use so much that any emissions cuts by the US would be futile. The president has said of China that "their air is dirty, and it drifts over to us". But the rush of new infrastructure for AI, along with the Trump administration's demolition of environmental regulations and China's rapid adoption of clean energy, is changing this equation. US spending on power plants fueled by coal and gas will outstrip that of China for the first time in decades, the International Energy Agency has forecast. The stampede by tech companies, such as Google, Open AI and Amazon, to build datacenters has contributed to a backlog of the most efficient gas turbines used for accompanying power plants. This has led several companies, including Elon Musk's xAI, to quickly switch to smaller, less efficient turbines which are more heavily polluting. Concerns over the climate crisis, rising power bills, tax breaks for AI companies and water shortages - two-thirds of more than 800 planned datacenters are located in drought-stricken areas - has fueled mounting local opposition to data center construction. A recent poll by Heatmap found that three-quarters of Americans do not want to live next to a datacenter, a huge increase in opposition in the past year. Dozens of cities and counties have placed restrictions on new datacenters, with New York in July becoming the first state to enact a temporary ban on new hyper-scale datacenter permitting and construction. Despite this backlash, which could well hurt Republicans in the November midterm elections, the Trump administration has championed the building of new datacenters and eliminated environmental reviews in order to speed them up. Trump said this month that "data centers could be bigger than oil" and state governors should cut taxes to encourage them. "Frankly, communities that don't take a datacenter, they're making a mistake because there's plenty of communities that want them," Trump said in separate remarks to his former lawyer Michael Cohen last week. "Because it means jobs, and it means tremendous tax revenue coming into the towns and cities that take them."

America's power grid can't keep up with AI: Why hundreds of data center projects are freezing

Planned United States data center developments face significant delays and cancellations. Aging electrical grids and supply chain issues are hindering rapid expansion efforts. Local communities are raising concerns about increased utility prices and water usage. These construction pauses will likely impact future energy demand forecasts. Future projects must demonstrate zero-impact designs to gain approval. The aggressive expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure across the United States is running into a severe physical reality check. According to a recent analysis reported by Bloomberg, up to 50 percent of all planned U.S. data center developments are now at risk of being delayed or canceled altogether. As tech giants rush to build energy-intensive facilities to power next-generation AI models, the ambitious timelines set by Silicon Valley are crashing into aging electrical grids, severe supply chain backlogs, and growing public pushback. Grid congestion and supply chains slam the brakesThe core problem stems from a fundamental disconnect between digital ambitions and physical infrastructure. Speaking to Bloomberg, Ben Dell, co-founder and managing partner of investment firm Kimmeridge Energy Management, pointed out that the rapid pace of software development cannot bypass physical engineering timelines. Regional utilities are struggling to process massive interconnect requests, creating multi-year backlogs for high-capacity power access. At the same time, critical electrical hardware such as high-voltage transformers and specialized switchgear currently carries lead times stretching past three years. Compounding these delays, local utility networks simply lack the immediate surplus wattage needed to run gigawatt-scale data complexes alongside existing commercial and residential loads. Growing public resistance across the countryHardware shortages tell only half the story. As Bloomberg highlighted in its coverage of the Kimmeridge assessment, political and community friction is emerging as an equally formidable barrier. Residents across states like Pennsylvania, Texas, and Ohio -- historically regarded as favorable regions for industrial development -- are actively challenging new permits. Local pushback centers around fears that massive industrial electricity demand will drive up utility prices for surrounding households, alongside concerns over the high water consumption required for server cooling systems in drought-prone regions. Consequently, municipalities are introducing local moratoriums and strict environmental review requirements, turning what was once a routine permitting process into a protracted legal and political battle. Ripple effects on U.S. energy demand forecastsThe projected pause on data center construction carries immediate implications for broader energy markets. Energy analysts previously anticipated that computing infrastructure would drive a significant portion of future U.S. natural gas consumption, estimating potential demand increases between 5 billion and 10 billion cubic feet per day. However, as reported by Bloomberg, Kimmeridge cautions that ongoing delays will likely pull actual consumption toward the bottom edge of those projections. This shift will require market forecasters to re-examine long-term domestic energy models. The perspective is notable coming from Kimmeridge, a firm with substantial holdings in natural gas production and export infrastructure, underscoring how broadly these infrastructure delays are expected to resonate across the energy sector. The push toward zero-impact facility designTo navigate this tightening regulatory and operational environment, future data center developments will likely require a complete structural shift. According to Dell's assessment in Bloomberg, developers can no longer rely on standard build-out blueprints. Going forward, projects will increasingly need to demonstrate a zero-impact operational model, designing facilities that offset their local grid burden, minimize water reliance, and prevent cost spikes for adjacent residential communities before ground is ever broken.

US Overtakes China in New Gas Power Construction as AI Data Centers Fuel Massive Energy Buildout -- But at

The U.S. has overtaken China in new gas-fired power plant construction, driven largely by a surge in AI data center development. According to a report, the buildout could also significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions if the proposed gas projects are completed. The U.S. has seen a 76% increase in gas-fired power projects under construction in the first half of this year. Previously, China's rapid economic growth had led it to surpass America in new gas power generation. However, the recent AI boom has reversed this trend. The U.S. is now building twice as much gas-fired capacity as China and more than any other country globally, according to a new report by Global Energy Monitor (GEM) on Tuesday. Since January, the total gas power capacity under development in the U.S. has increased by 50%, from 252GW to 378GW. If all these projects are completed, the U.S. will expand its gas fleet by approximately two-thirds, costing over $647 billion, as per Gem's findings. This reliance on gas, a fossil fuel, instead of renewables, could potentially increase US power emissions by up to 20%. Jenny Martos, a project manager at GEM, said, "Six months ago, China had more gas plants under construction, but that has now flipped. Building all of this gas for AI locks in decades of pollution, and it is also locking in dependence on a volatile fuel cost, which will get passed down to rate payers." Trump Defends AI Data Center Boom as GOP Fears Backlash This surge in gas-fired power plant construction comes in the wake of President Donald Trump's defense of the U.S. data-center boom. He argued that communities rejecting these projects are "making a mistake" as AI infrastructure can deliver jobs, investment, and tax revenue. Trump also mentioned that these data centers are not draining local grids, as "they're making their own power plants," although many facilities remain dependent on regional grids. Trading Ideas Modine Stock Jumps After Report Names Google, Amazon as Data Center Cooling Customers Modine Manufacturing Co (NYSE:MOD) shares are rising Friday. An investigative report from Hunterbrook Media identified Google as the previously unnamed customer behind Modine's $4 billion cooling agreement. Here's what you should know. 3 min read Read this article Previously, Trump even called data centers more precious than oil. However, there has been growing opposition to new AI infrastructure projects across the US. Trump acknowledged this, stating that data centers could use "a little public relations help." Trending Get a 1% Match on Your First Deposit of $1,000+ In July, the White House expanded its voluntary Ratepayer Protection Pledge for AI data centers to prevent them from increasing residential electricity bills. Current signatories of the pledge include Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META), Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL), OpenAI, xAI, and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). However, a report indicated that the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has privately alerted top AI firms about the potential political fallout from the negative public opinion surrounding data centers. The Republicans fear that if this backlash results in the defeat of Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), it could discourage politicians across the country from backing future data center projects. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Tech Meta Pledged 100% Renewable Energy in 2016: 10 Years Later, It's Ditching the Plan Meta Platforms joined the RE100 clean energy initiative in 2016, but its data center plans complicate things. 2 min read Read this article Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.