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Amazon invests in gas power plant to supply Texas data center, poised to become one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the US

Amazon backs construction of a large natural gas power plant in West Texas to power a new AI data center, with permit documents indicating it could emit up to 33 million tons of greenhouse gases per year

Amazon is developing a new data center in Pecos County, West Texas, to support power-hungry AI workloads. To ensure sufficient electricity, the company has invested heavily in building a new natural gas power plant in the same area, according to a report by The New York Times, which The Verge expanded upon.

What has put this project under scrutiny is that the plant's permit application states that, if built to the planned specifications, the facility could be authorized to emit up to 33 million tons of greenhouse gases per year — which would make it one of the largest power-plant pollution sources in the United States. A report from TechCrunch points in the same direction, highlighting growing environmental concerns.

The matter is especially noteworthy because it clashes with the environmental image Amazon has promoted through its Climate Pledge, the company's commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The choice to use a large gas power plant to feed an AI data center raises questions about how it will affect that goal.

Moreover, Amazon's case reflects the bigger picture of the entire AI industry, where soaring data center electricity demand is pushing many tech companies back toward fossil fuels, despite previously setting clear clean-energy targets.

That said, this issue is separate from another Amazon case in Pennsylvania, where the company partnered with Talen Energy in an attempt to use nuclear power for a data center, but part of the plan to expand power capacity was rejected earlier by the US federal energy regulator (FERC). This shows that both of Amazon's paths to powering AI have faced their own obstacles and controversies.