Hold Data Centers Accountable for Air & Climate Pollution

Your actions on data centers can protect our communities, health, and climate

Dear State Utility Commissioners and Air Regulators, The rush to connect AI data centers is wreaking havoc not just on our energy bills, but now threatens our clean air and the stable climate we depend on. Powering data centers with gas threatens to reverse over a decade of progress cleaning up America's electricity supply. Massive new data centers driving utilities to build an unprecedented amount of new gas plants with insufficient review of whether they are the best solution for all utility customers. And the very largest AI data centers are looking to build more gas plants than entire utilities, and burn more gas than entire states. We must not allow the corporate AI race to harm our climate or our health. By 2030, data centers could consume more than 25 percent of all US electricity, and utilities are scrambling to build over 300 gigawatts of gas-fired power plants to meet that demand. Without protections in place, just building gas plants will leave American households footing the bill for decades to come. These short-sighted decisions are not only tethering our utilities to gas, but are on track to undo hard-won progress toward delivering low-cost clean energy. Data center developers are now rapidly building huge “behind-the-meter” gas plants, cobbled together from dozens to hundreds of gas and diesel generators. Just the largest 12 of these data centers will emit more climate pollution than the entire electric sector of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and anticipate releasing thousands of tons of harmful fine particulates and smog-forming NOx, and hundreds of tons of carcinogens like formaldehyde. We need utility and air regulators like you to enact and enforce rigorous guardrails that will protect the public, our environment, and our climate. We must ensure that household ratepayers are held harmless in perpetuity from cost shifting and the rush to gas driving up bills, and can benefit from low-cost, reliable renewable energy. We must prevent behind-the-meter gas plants from polluting communities, and ensure that permits reduce and not increase harm. And we must use every tool at our disposal to prevent data centers powered by gas from leaving us with an unlivable climate. Our children and the next generation depend on your actions to protect them from record-breaking heat, storms, wildfires, and floods. Sincerely,