Amazon backs power plant that may become top source of US climate pollution

Amazon is investing in a natural gas power plant in Texas to fuel its AI data center, which could become the largest single source of climate pollution in the United States. The move exemplifies a broader trend among major tech companies—including Google, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI—that are building their own power plants to bypass environmental permitting processes, despite public health concerns and community opposition. The Trump administration's support for fast-tracking these projects and backing similar efforts by Elon Musk's xAI suggests that regulatory resistance to gas-powered data centers may be ineffective.