New Gas-Powered Data Centers Could Emit More Greenhouse Gases Than Whole Nations
Natural gas-powered data centers linked to major tech companies like OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, and xAI could emit over 129 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, exceeding the emissions of entire nations such as Morocco and Jamaica. These behind-the-meter power projects are being developed to bypass strained electrical grids and meet the surging energy demands of AI infrastructure. The trend raises significant environmental concerns, especially for communities near proposed sites, as regulators approve permits despite public opposition.
- ▪Eleven US data center campuses using natural gas could emit more than 129 million tons of greenhouse gases per year, exceeding Morocco's 2024 emissions.
- ▪xAI’s Colossus 1 and Colossus 2 campuses in Tennessee and Mississippi could each emit over 6.4 million tons of CO2 equivalent annually, totaling emissions comparable to more than 30 average natural gas plants.
- ▪A Chevron-backed natural gas project in West Texas, linked to Microsoft, could emit over 11.5 million tons of greenhouse gases per year, more than Jamaica’s total annual emissions.
- ▪These behind-the-meter power projects are designed to operate independently of the traditional grid, driven by delays in utility connections and rising public resistance to increased energy costs.
- ▪The NAACP filed a lawsuit against xAI, alleging illegal operation of gas turbines, following community protests and regulatory approvals despite local opposition.
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| Original publisher | WIRED |
| Canonical URL | https://www.wired.com/story/new-gas-powered-data-centers-could-emit-more-greenhouse-gases-than-entire-nations/ |
| Publication time | Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:29:30 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-04-28T11:55:29.820Z |
| Last seen | 2026-04-28T11:55:29.820Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
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| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | g2bzYC6hnvlS · 2 stories |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
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| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
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Molly TaftScienceApr 22, 2026 6:30 AMNew Gas-Powered Data Centers Could Emit More Greenhouse Gases Than Entire NationsA 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. PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION: WIRED STAFF; GETTY IMAGESCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyNew gas projects linked to just 11 data center campuses around the US have the potential to create more greenhouse gases than the country of Morocco emitted in 2024.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at WIRED.
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