One Of Few AI Outcomes We Can Be Reasonably Sure Of: A Projected Doubling Of Air Pollution In Texas

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State regulators are considering proposals for more than 100 new gas power projects — the vast majority of them entirely new plants — to power a new wave of data centers, according to findings published early Wednesday by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). More than 30 have already been permitted in a process that amounts to a “rubber stamp,” the EIP said.

“To meet its increasing demand for electricity, Texas should be encouraging more clean energy instead of feeding public subsidies to dirty fossil fuels,” Jen Duggan, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, said in a statement. The plants spread across the state but cluster around Houston, the I-35 corridor between Austin and San Antonio and the oilfields of West Texas.

If all are built, they could produce as much pollution each year as another 27 million new cars and trucks — the equivalent of doubling Texas’s current motor vehicle fleet, the report found. Oil and gas pollution includes volatile organic carcinogens such as benzene, asthma-triggering compounds including ozone and nitrogen oxides and lung-burrowing particles like PM 2.5.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state’s environmental regulator, declined The Hill’s request for comment on the analysis.

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https://thehill.com/policy/equilibrium-sustainability/5342046-texas-ai-data-centers-air-pollution-study/