The Single Largest Pollution Source In The USA Going To Be An Amazon AI Data Center

Investment Analysis Clubs Macro Economic Trends and Risks
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Amazon is reportedly building a 7.65-gigawatt (GW) gas-burning power plant in Pecos County, Texas, in order to power a gigantic data center. The power plant’s 35 gas turbines are expected to emit 33 million tons of CO2 a year. No other single source of pollution in the country would compare.

Amazon spokesperson Margaret Callahan’s response: “[the] world looks different now than when we co-founded The Climate Pledge.

Yeah there is big money to be made in polluting AI. And Jeffy boy “needs” this money.

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When I was working at Exxon 40 plus years ago, we were doing the early planning on a large gas project in Indonesia that would have been the World’s largest single point source of carbon pollution if there was a market for the natural gas at the “right” price.

The well stream was only 15% methane and the rest was mostly carbon dioxide. The cheapest way to handle that was to build a giant multi-billion dollar incinerator in the middle of the ocean to burn it off.

intercst

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Obviously nuclear SMRs are a better choice if ever we get around to building and permitting them.

Low cost abundant natural gas is an easy choice. Scrubbers to collect and sequester carbon dioxide are possible.

Our inability to tie our own shoe laces in matters like this is clear. Why does permitting nuclear take so long?

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A while back in a different thread, I pondered if DCs were working to capture “fugitive, vented, flared” gas from the oil infrastructure.

Here’s part of Claude LLM comment:

" Yes — this is actually one of the more interesting trends in the AI infrastructure buildout, and it splits into two very different categories.

Direct flare/vent capture (small but real)
Crusoe Energy pioneered this: mobile “Digital Flare Mitigation” units sit right at well sites, capture gas that would otherwise be flared or vented, and burn it on-site to power containerized compute."

The bigger money is going elsewhere - behind the meter
Most of the new Permian data center wave (Chevron’s 2.5–5 GW plant, FO Permian Partners’ 5 GW project, Pacifico’s 7.65 GW complex, Texas Critical Data Centers) isn’t primarily about mopping up fugitive/flared gas — it’s about building large new gas-fired power plants behind-the-meter, using the Permian’s abundant associated gas supply and favorable Texas regulatory environment as cheap fuel."

Texas Govnr Abbott recently stopped all new DC permits, and requires new permits to:
Recycle water,
Limit noise and pollution impacts on neighbors, and

Bring their own energy source.
In addition there’s a suggestion to use the power resources to lower local electricity rates, and support the neighbors in emergency situations.

Here is Claude:
“Bottom line: Water recycling and noise/neighbor-impact limits appear to be part of the current disclosure push, but the detailed enforceable rules (thresholds, penalties, how strict) are still being written by PUCT through 2026 — this is very much a live regulatory process, not a finished rulebook.”

While it’s de rigueur to attack DCs, in Texas real world, it’s a nuanced work in progress.

:see_no_evil_monkey::hear_no_evil_monkey::speak_no_evil_monkey:
ralph

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There are at least three SMR projects currently in construction in the US.

Last year, Oklo began construction on its Aurora Powerhouse at the Idaho National Laboratory.

On September 22, Oklo announced that it broke ground on Aurora-INL. This will be the company’s first deployment of its flagship reactor, the Aurora Powerhouse, a 75-MWe liquid metal–cooled, metal-fueled fast reactor. According to the company, the reactor “builds on the design and operating heritage of the Experimental Breder Reactor-II,” a 20-MWe breder reactor power plant that ran at INL (which was then called Argonne West) from 1964 to 1969.

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Kairos Power is building its Hermes 2 plant in Tennessee. This will be a power producing version of its Hermes 1, a lower power first demonstration plant for the Kairos design.

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Bill Gates’ TerraPower is building the Natrium reactor in western Wyoming. At 345 MWe, I’m not sure that still qualifies as an SMR, but it is currently progressing.

The Natrium reactor is a 345-megawatt electric sodium-cooled fast reactor with a molten salt energy storage system that can quickly boost the system’s output to 500 megawatts for increased flexibility and reliability.

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Other projects, mostly in Idaho and Utah, are part of the DOE Pilot Reactor program. Four of those projects have built working low-power test reactors. A few of those might start generating electricity in the next several months.

_ Pete

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Here is another recent Texas data center and power development. GE Vernova Hitachi is partnering with Blue Energy for a combined gas and nuclear complex near Victoria.

Blue Energy and GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GVH) have signed an agreement to launch the next phase of their collaboration on a planned 2.5-GW gas-plus-nuclear power project in Victoria, Texas, moving the closely watched data-center power concept from an announced collaboration to engineering, licensing, and safety analysis.

The Aug. 13-announced agreement will advance project definition for a facility that would pair two GE Vernova 7HA.02 gas turbines with up to five GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 small modular reactors (SMRs), the companies said. The project remains subject to a final investment decision in 2027.

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A BWRX-300 power plant is currently in construction in Canada, near Toronto. Also, the Tennessee Valley Authority has applied for a construction permit to build the first BWRX-300 in the US at its Clinch River site, near Oak Ridge and Knoxville, Tennessee.

_ Pete