Amazon Texas data center’s gas plant to emit 33 million tons of CO2 yearly
Amazon’s next big data center won’t just crunch numbers for its cloud and AI business — it could also become one of the dirtiest power sources in the country. According to reporting from The New York Times, the planned Amazon data center in Texas will run on electricity from an on-site natural gas plant permitted to release more carbon dioxide annually than any other power plant currently operating in the United States.
Key takeaways
- Amazon plans a new data center in Pecos County, Texas, paired with its own on-site natural gas power plant.
- That plant is permitted to emit 33 million tons of CO2 annually — more than any other power plant in the U.S., according to The New York Times.
- Amazon says the facility will run on new on-site generation that won’t raise electricity costs for Texas families.
- Amazon’s overall carbon emissions rose 16% last year, moving in the wrong direction relative to its 2040 net-zero pledge.
- An Amazon spokesperson insists the company’s climate commitment “hasn’t changed,” even as AI-driven power demand reshapes its energy strategy.
Amazon’s Texas Data Center and On-Site Power Plant
The project centers on a rural stretch of West Texas, where Amazon is building both the computing infrastructure and the energy source to run it. Pairing a data center directly with its own power plant lets Amazon sidestep some of the grid bottlenecks that have slowed other AI infrastructure buildouts across the country.
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