Amazon is investing in a gas-fired power plant on the site of a planned data center in Pecos County, Texas, according to The New York Times. The facility has been permitted to emit up to 33 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.
If operated within that permitted limit, it would become the single largest source of emissions among power plants in the United States.
An Amazon representative said the on-site generation would power the data center and would not raise electricity costs for Texas households, adding that the facility will be powered by on-site generation that will not increase electricity costs for Texas families.
Data centers already face political pushback in the United States, partly over rising electricity demand and the associated costs of expanding the power grid.
Climate pledge under pressure
The project deepens the tension between growing energy use from AI infrastructure and Amazon's climate commitments. The company said its total carbon emissions rose 16% last year, despite an earlier pledge to eliminate its own emissions by 2040.
As it expands AI infrastructure, Amazon and other tech companies are backing construction of large gas plants capable of powering data centers.
An Amazon representative acknowledged that the energy and climate landscape has shifted since the company made its earlier commitments, saying the world looks different now than when Amazon co-founded the climate pledge, while stressing that its commitment to the pledge itself has not changed.
