New power plants for data centers would significantly increase PA’s air pollution
Reprinted from Inside Climate News, July 2, 2026
By Jon Hurdle
Data center developers in Pennsylvania plan to rely on at least seven new natural gas-fired power plants that would emit climate-warming gases equal to adding 14 million cars on the road every year, according to a new report.
The report from the Environmental Integrity Project, an advocacy group, said the plants would together emit some 68 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually, part of a national trend that would result in a huge rise in greenhouse gas emissions amid global efforts to slow climate change. That bump would mean a 24 percent increase in Pennsylvania’s emissions as of 2022.
The planned power plants, in Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the United States, are so-called “behind-the-meter” plants that would supply electricity directly to data centers rather than to the grid, where data centers would have to draw energy alongside other users, such as homes and businesses. EIP’s report, titled “The Power Behind AI,” focused on larger power plants capable of generating 100 megawatts or more. The plants planned in Pennsylvania would produce about 14 gigawatts of power combined.
As plans for data centers proliferate across the United States, and affected communities claim the rush toward development will damage the environment and public health, the report is the latest to warn of a national surge in greenhouse gas emissions in response to huge new demand for electricity from the industry. Natural gas-rich Pennsylvania has attracted significant interest from tech companies hoping to build near an abundant fuel supply, even as the state’s legacy of fossil fuel extraction means that some residents are more skeptical of those plans.
PHOTO/Wikimedia Commons, OptikalCrow, Gas-powered plant in Georgia
