AI datacenter boom triples US gas power builds, filling the air with more CO2

Fossil fuel-fired power plant development is roaring back to life in the US thanks to the AI datacenter boom, with data from 2025 suggesting we're reaching the point where the renewable energy transition - and efforts to ease carbon emissions - may well be doomed.

2025 was a banner year for gas-fired power plant development in the US, nonprofit energy project tracking firm Global Energy Monitor (GEM) said in its latest analysis issued on Wednesday. Gas-fired power plant projects in development in the US nearly tripled last year, per GEM's data, putting the US ahead of China and responsible for around a quarter of the global gas power pipeline. 

It's not exactly a close race, either. There are 251,737 megawatts of gas or oil fired plants (oil-fired plants are mainly located in Iraq and account for less than 3 percent of projects, GEM told us) in development in ...