America Leads Global, Massive Expansion Of Gas Power Plants Because Of (All Together Now!) AI. USA!! USA!! USA!! [View all]

[hatrack]

The US is leading a huge global surge in new gas-fired power generation that will cause a major leap in planet-heating emissions, with this record boom driven by the expansion of energy-hungry datacenters to service artificial intelligence, according to a new forecast.
This year is set to shatter the annual record for new gas power additions around the world, with planned and under-construction projects earmarked for 2026 set to nearly triple the amount of existing gas capacity, a report by Global Energy Monitor (GEM) found.

The US is at the forefront of a global push for gas that is set to escalate over the next five years, after tripling its planned gas-fired capacity in 2025. Much of this new capacity will be devoted to the vast electricity needs of AI, with a third of the 252 gigawatts of gas power in development set to be situated on site at datacenters. All of this new gas energy is set to come at a significant cost to the climate, amid ongoing warnings from scientists that fossil fuels must be rapidly phased out to avoid disastrous global heating.

The gas projects in development in the US will, if all completed, cause 12.1bn tonnes in carbon dioxide emissions over their lifetimes, which is double the current annual emissions coming from all sources in the US. Worldwide, the planned gas boom will cause 53.2bn tonnes of emissions over projects’ lifetimes if fulfilled, pushing the planet towards even worse heatwaves, droughts, floods and other climate impacts.

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Much of this power will be swallowed up by vast datacenters being built by tech companies to grow the AI industry. The growth of AI has been enthusiastically promoted by Donald Trump, with the president stating his administration will do “whatever it takes” for the US to lead in AI, vowing to sweep away “foolish rules” that slow the build-out of datacenters. The proliferation of datacenters has, however, caused a bump in greenhouse gas emissions and boosted demand for electricity. This has raised power bills for many Americans, despite Trump’s promise to cut such costs in half in his first year in office.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/29/gas-power-ai-climate