WIRED reviewed air permits for 11 natural gas data center campuses linked to OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, and xAI, finding combined potential of 129 million tons of CO2e per year.
Key Takeaways
Behind-the-meter power bypasses grid utilities entirely; data centers run near-constant load, so actual emissions track closer to permitted maximums than typical grid plants.
xAI’s Colossus (Memphis) and Colossus 2 (Southaven) are each permitted at 6.4M tons CO2e/year; Microsoft’s Chevron-backed West Texas project adds 11.5M tons/year alone.
Three Stargate-affiliated projects in Texas and New Mexico are permitted for a combined 24M+ tons/year; Fermi’s Trump campus near Amarillo and Pacifico’s Fort Stockton project add another 73M+ tons combined.
A global shortage of efficient turbines is pushing some developers toward less efficient models run continuously, worsening the gap between permit estimates and grid-plant baselines.
Even at half permitted levels, the 11 campuses would still exceed Norway’s total 2024 annual emissions.
Hacker News Comment Review
The dominant counter-argument is a productivity offset: if AI raises US labor productivity by more than 2%, carbon intensity falls correspondingly, framing the data centers as a net climate positive.
Commenters challenged the Morocco comparison as selectively framed: it omits emissions generated by Moroccans and others using overseas cloud and AI services, making the national comparison cut both ways.
With only three comments, there is no technical debate on permit modeling methodology, turbine efficiency, or behind-the-meter regulation.
