New Amazon Data Center Stokes Worry It Would Be the Most Polluting Power Plant in the U.S.
The tech giant is investing in the natural-gas-burning power plant as part of a huge data center in Texas, even as it pledges to honor climate commitments.
Amazon is investing in a new natural-gas-burning power plant in Pecos County, Texas, to power its new West Texas data center. The plant, which would have 35 natural-gas turbines, is expected to produce 7.65 gigawatts of electricity. According to The Verge, it could be one of the largest single producers of greenhouse gases in the US.
The power plant would primarily deliver electricity to the new data center and, at least initially, would not be connected to the state's power grid. Amazon's investment in the plant has been reported, although the exact amount is not specified in the reports.
The data center project is part of Amazon's expansion plans, which have also included a $2 billion project in Gilroy, California, that was quietly negotiated over several years, according to the Wall Street Journal, as cited by Techmeme.
Brief written by urgent.news from The Verge, The New York Times, Techmeme — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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