Written by Derek Seidman
This article was first published truth
Data centers are driving a surge in the construction of power generation facilities that use fracked gas.
“The demand for power and AI is unlike anything I've seen before.”
Those words were spoken during an October earnings call, not by a wide-eyed tech executive, but by Jeff Miller, CEO of Halliburton, one of the world's largest oilfield services companies.
Halliburton, like other companies involved in the fracked gas industry, is gearing up to contribute to the data center boom with new methane-emitting gas-fired power generation to fund the artificial intelligence (AI) bubble fueled by Silicon Valley billionaires and their corporate elites.
Halliburton is just one of many fossil fuel companies making deals to meet data centers' insatiable power demands. More specifically, the natural gas industry (frackers, gas field services, pipeline companies, power supply companies) is positioning itself as a bold savior to meet AI's seemingly endless energy demands.
In this effort, fracked gas companies have the full support of the Trump administration, due to its ideological commitment to fossil fuels and friendly relationships with billionaire oil and gas donors. Meanwhile, Big Tech companies are following suit, largely sidelining their purported renewable energy initiatives.
None of this bodes well as the global climate crisis intensifies. Despite being marketed as a “clean” fossil fuel, fracking gas emits large amounts of methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases, and rural, low-income, predominantly black communities are bearing the brunt of the combination of giant data centers and fossil fuel power generation being built in their backyards.
“The natural gas industry works directly with the data center industry,” said Tyson Slocum, director of the Public Citizen Energy Program. truth. “From a climate perspective and from a local environmental perspective, data centers are a significant impediment to tackling climate change.”
“Icing on the Cake”
According to the International Energy Agency, natural gas currently provides more than 40% of data center electricity, making gas-fired power plants the largest source of electricity.
The huge demand for electricity from data centers has led to a rapid increase in the construction of natural gas-fired power generation infrastructure.
One McKinsey analyst recently noted that more than 100 gigawatts (GW) of new gas-fired power projects are planned. “To put this number in perspective, the United States has added only about 35 gigawatts of gas over the past five years,” he said, meaning “almost three times as much as before.”
Utilities have announced a number of new gas-fired power projects in 2025, a factor that helps explain the rush by private equity to acquire utilities. Data center power demand is expected to jump 22% this year.
Industry leaders are swooning. “It's probably been 40 or 50 years since we've seen demand grow in the way it is and is expected to continue to grow,” said an executive at energy giant NRG.
“AI is clearly playing a big role,” he added.
A central driver of the fracking gas industry over the past decade has been the surge in the production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for export, which has accelerated significantly since the Obama administration. Currently, the United States leads the world in natural gas production and export.
While LNG exports are unparalleled as “the demand driver and profit center of the domestic natural gas industry,” data centers “provide a significant additional profit cushion,” Slocum says.
“Data centers are the biggest variable that increases electricity demand,” he said. “They're like the icing on the cake.”
“It helps feed your appetite.”
Slocum said that with 3 million miles of gas pipelines tightly networked across the country, the fracking gas industry has established itself as a major supplier of power to data centers.
This is evidenced by a spate of data center deals by companies across the fracked gas supply chain, including independent mining companies, oil and gas giants, pipeline companies, and oilfield services companies.
EQT, a top U.S. natural producer based in Western Pennsylvania, in the heart of the vast Marcellus Shale formation, has signed a contract to supply a combined 1.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day to the Shipping Port and Homer City projects, two massive data center hubs in Appalachia.
“To put this in perspective, this is enough natural gas to power two parts of New York City,” EQT CEO Toby Rice beamed, but added that Homer City and Shipping Port are “just the first step in multiple projects.”
EQT is not alone. Hydraulic fracturing giants such as EOG and Antero Resources have contracts to position themselves to supply data centers. Comstock Resources, owned by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, is partnering with utility giant NextEra to “keep the lights on in numerous data centers” in Texas, Natural Gas Intelligence reported.
Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil and gas company, is getting into the game. “AI data centers require large amounts of energy to function,” the company asserted in a February press release.
But fear not, they promised. “Chevron is leveraging natural gas to feed its appetite,” the oil giant declared, announcing a new contract to build gas-fired power plants for data centers.
“Unleash America's Energy”
Massive energy demands driven by artificial intelligence are drawing the fracking industry toward data centers, but Trump administration policies are also playing a role.
“The Trump administration's national policy prioritizes fossil fuels, especially natural gas, for data center development,” Slocum said. truth.
“This is clearly articulated in President Trump's July Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence, which defines the criteria data centers must meet to receive expedited approval and enumerates all energy sources except wind and solar,” Slocum added.
A July 2025 executive order titled “Accelerating Federal Permits for Data Center Infrastructure” clearly emphasizes the role of fossil fuels in powering data centers. This document defines “covered components,” or “materials, products, and infrastructure required to build a data center project.” The definition uses language that emphasizes “energy infrastructure,” such as “natural gas pipelines or laterals,” “natural gas turbines,” and “coal-fired power generation facilities,” without mentioning terms like “wind” or “solar power.”
“Data centers proposed to be powered by wind and solar would not be eligible for expedited processing, but fossil fuel-powered facilities would be eligible for expedited processing,” Slocum wrote, adding that fossil fuel-powered data centers could also be eligible for direct federal subsidies.
This codification of national policy on fossil fuels as a core provider of data centers is consistent with Donald Trump's campaign promise to “Drill Baby Drill” and his staunchly pro-fossil fuel January 2025 Executive Order on “Freeing America's Energy.”
Since taking office in January 2025, the Trump administration has waged a war on renewable energy, freezing permits for solar and wind projects and vilifying wind turbines.
Trump and fossil fuel CEOs
President Trump's ideological commitment to powering data centers with fossil fuel-powered electricity is tied to his cozy relationship with a fracking billionaire who helped finance his 2024 reelection bid.
Trump views oil and gas tycoons as key constituencies in his 2024 re-election campaign, with industry billionaires like Harold Hamm and Kelsey Warren showering him with millions of dollars in donations.
as truth Trump has previously pointed out that he has packed his cabinet with fossil fuel executives and backers, including Chris Wright, the former CEO of Liberty Energy, whom he nominated to be secretary of energy.
Since then, the fossil fuel industry has benefited greatly from President Trump's environmental deregulation policies, tax subsidies and new business related to data centers.
Warren is the co-founder and executive chairman of pipeline giant Energy Transfer and a longtime ally of President Trump. Energy Transfer is bursting with new business supplying data centers from Texas to Arizona and partnering with AI giants like Oracle.
Hamm, the founder and former CEO of fracking giant Continental Resources, is a major donor to Trump and also supports Trump's White House banquet hall. He could become Trump's biggest ally in the fossil fuel industry.
It says “Together” new york timesMr. Trump and Mr. Hamm “reshaped federal policy to benefit oil and gas companies, including Mr. Hamm's Continental, and delayed the transition to greener alternatives like solar power and batteries.”
The Hamm Institute, a research and policy hub where Mr. Hamm also serves as director, supports natural gas as a power source for AI, and in April hosted an event on “Powering AI” featuring key members of Trump's cabinet, which is leading the administration's energy policy.
Liberty Energy, previously led by President Trump's Energy Secretary Chris Wright, also has a contract to supply power to data centers in Pennsylvania.
“The only thing that will stop us from leading in AI is if we fail to build the power generation capacity that we need to deliver,” Wright recently exclaimed at the Council on Foreign Relations, adding that he is “using emergency powers to stop AI.” [the] “Closing coal-fired power plants” and “speeding up construction permits for new power plants.”
Big Tech suitability
Meanwhile, major tech companies quickly backed away from their net-zero pledges in favor of gas-fired power generation for their data centers.
For example, Entergy, a power generation giant that relies primarily on fossil fuels, is currently building three large gas-fired power plants to power its $10 billion Meta Data Center in Louisiana.
Less than a decade ago, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was passionate about tackling the climate crisis. Fast forward to today, and Zuckerberg and Meta are being slammed by lawmakers, energy analysts, and community groups, with headlines like “Meta goes all-in on gas to power giant data centers.”
This applies to a larger pattern. truth Silicon Valley CEOs are reportedly backtracking on their purported climate change goals and criticism of President Trump in order to stay in the president's good graces and benefit from his policies.
“President Trump is demanding conformity, but Big Tech is delivering conformity by turning its back on its previous commitments to increase and rely on renewable energy,” Slocum said.
Of course, all of this will worsen the climate crisis. The production, transportation, and combustion of natural gas releases large amounts of methane. Methane is 86 times more effective at trapping heat in Earth's atmosphere than carbon dioxide.
Under the Trump administration, data centers are also breathing new life into dying and dirty coal-fired power plants, many backed by ultra-polluting diesel generators, which some fear will be used more frequently.
As journalist Adam Mahoney has reported, in states like South Carolina and Texas, Black households are disproportionately bearing the brunt of the data center boom and AI-driven increases in fossil fuel emissions, especially on-site generation.
From Memphis, Tennessee, to Bessemer, Alabama, to Santa Teresa, Arizona, many communities are resisting both data centers and their polluting emissions.
Indeed, Big Tech companies are also partnering on several projects that use renewable energy sources to service their data centers. Although U.S. data centers are overwhelmingly powered by fossil fuel sources, the International Energy Agency notes that the share of solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources will increase from the 2030s onwards.
However, this raises another question. Do we really want the transition to renewable energy to be dominated by the profit-centered priorities of Big Tech and Wall Street companies and their obsession with the supposedly unproven wonders of AI, and wasted money on its realization?
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