The AI revolution has a fossil fuel problem. Gas projects explicitly tied to data centers surged almost 25 times over the past two years, according to research released Wednesday by Global Energy Monitor. The explosion in demand could expand America's gas-fired power fleet by nearly 50 percent - adding enough capacity to power tens of millions of homes while threatening to derail climate goals just as the Trump administration rolls back methane regulations.
The numbers are staggering, even by Silicon Valley's standards. When Global Energy Monitor last surveyed America's gas infrastructure pipeline in early 2024, just over 4 gigawatts of new gas-fired power were earmarked for data centers. Fast forward to 2025, and that figure has exploded to more than 97 gigawatts - a nearly 25-fold increase that caught even industry watchers off guard.
"About a year and a half ago, we started to see this increase in proposals for data centers specifically," Jenny Martos, a research analyst at the San Francisco-based nonprofit, told Wired. The timing coincides perfectly with the AI boom that's pushed tech giants into a desperate scramble for power - any power, from any source.
The implications stretch far beyond electricity bills. Building out all the gas infrastructure currently in development would add almost 252 gigawatts to America's existing 565-gigawatt gas fleet, according to federal data. That's a potential 50 percent expansion of the nation's gas-fired power capacity, with more than a third explicitly linked to feeding the insatiable appetite of AI training and inference workloads.
"The implications are huge when you're talking about this size of a build-out," Jonathan Banks, a senior climate adviser at Clean Air Task Force, said in an interview. His organization wasn't involved in the research, but the findings align with what energy analysts have been quietly warning about for months - the AI revolution is colliding head-on with climate commitments.
