Texas Data Center Boom Leaves Residents in the Dust

Omaira Garcia, an Air Force veteran and mother of two, never imagined her small ranch in Abilene, Texas, would become ground zero for a construction frenzy. Clouds of dust from a mysterious project next door began swallowing her home last summer, and she only learned later that OpenAI was building its flagship Stargate data center right beside her property. Now, a natural-gas-powered electrical plant sits roughly 500 yards from her house, its exhaust stacks visible from her kitchen window. "We weren't given any time to understand what this impact was going to be on us," Garcia says through tears. "We're trapped here."

Texas is on track to surpass Virginia as the nation's top data center market by 2030, with some 300 centers already running and 200 more in development. But a Floodlight investigation reveals a regulatory loophole that allows developers to quietly build massive on-site power plants with little public notice. Instead of obtaining major air permits - which require environmental reviews and community input - many data centers secure minor permits typically used for dry cleaners and auto body shops. Kathryn Guerra, a former Texas Commission on Environmental Quality staffer now with Public Citizen, says these permits are "rubber-stamped with minimal review," leaving communities stunned when exhaust stacks pop up in their backyards.

At least 15 gas plants tied to data centers are planned for Texas, and nine of them combined could emit more than 130 million tons of greenhouse gases annually - equivalent to 35 coal-fired power plants. Stargate alone, through a "small first, big later" strategy, initially secured minor permits for 10 turbines and 62 backup diesel generators, then filed for a major expansion of 41 more turbines and 18 generators. Former EPA air enforcement chief Bruce Buckheit says this staggered approach could violate EPA aggregation policies. For Garcia, the expansion plans feel like a gut punch. She tried to sell her home but got no offers, and now feels trapped. "I don't know what the future looks like," she says.

Source: Wired