As artificial intelligence places unprecedented demands on power infrastructure, Amazon is backing a massive new natural-gas power plant in West Texas, drawing sharp criticism over its environmental impact and raising questions about corporate climate commitments.
To supply power to its newly planned data center in Pecos County, Texas, Amazon is investing in a facility that could become one of the single largest individual sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Known as GW Ranch, the facility will operate 35 natural-gas turbines capable of generating 7.65 gigawatts of electricity. At least initially, the plant will operate off-grid, feeding power directly into the adjacent data center rather than connecting to the state's primary electrical grid.
Data from industry tracker Cleanview reveals that Texas regulators granted GW Ranch a permit allowing emissions of up to 33 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. If fully realized, that output would exceed the emissions of even the largest active coal plant in the country. Although industrial facilities rarely emit their maximum permitted allocations, environmental experts point out that the sheer magnitude of the allowed limits reflects exceptionally lenient regulatory oversight.
Amazon is not alone in turning to fossil fuels to quench the immense energy appetite of artificial intelligence infrastructure. Industry peers, including Meta and Google, have increasingly relied on gas, coal, and non-renewable energy installations to keep pace with rapid expansion in machine learning capabilities.
The GW Ranch project presents a stark challenge to Amazon's Climate Pledge. First announced by former CEO Jeff Bezos, the pledge committed the company to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. However, Amazon's overall carbon emissions have expanded steadily in recent years due to cloud computing demands. Responding to the concerns, Amazon spokeswoman Margaret Callahan acknowledged that while "the world looks different now than when we co-founded the climate pledge," the company maintains that its overall commitment to sustainability has not changed.