{"id":966,"date":"2026-07-08T12:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=966"},"modified":"2026-07-08T12:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:09:18","slug":"trump-says-hell-fast-track-private-gas-plants-to-power-ai-data-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=966","title":{"rendered":"Trump Says He\u2019ll Fast-Track Private Gas Plants to Power AI Data Centers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Donald<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

This story was originally published by\u00a0<\/em>Inside Climate News\u00a0and\u00a0is reproduced here as part of the\u00a0<\/em>Climate Desk\u00a0collaboration.<\/em><\/p>

Read more DOGE Ended on July 4, but the Workers Whose Lives Musk Upended Are Still Reeling<\/a><\/p>\n

In brief remarks<\/span> to reporters Monday at the White House, President Donald Trump noted that he was shocked to learn how much energy developing artificial intelligence requires and said his administration is now approving plans for energy facilities to power data centers in \u201ca matter of weeks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

After first describing his investment accounts for children, Trump responded to a question on cryptocurrency and said Big Tech leaders racing to develop artificial intelligence have told him they need access to double the country\u2019s existing energy capacity in order to advance technologies and outpace foreign competitors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump also said that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin had told him tech companies weren\u2019t taking advantage of the administration\u2019s promise to get fast approvals for private power plants supporting AI development.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump said he then called Meta\u2019s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon\u2019s Jeff Bezos, OpenAI\u2019s Sam Altman, and SpaceX\u2019s Elon Musk to ask why they hadn\u2019t submitted plans for power plants alongside their data center developments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey thought we were kidding,\u201d Trump said Monday. \u201cThey can\u2019t believe it, that they\u2019re approved in a period of a matter of weeks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The White House did not immediately respond to questions about how the administration is approving power plant plans in a matter of weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the administration has sought to waive\u00a0environmental protections, expedite permits, and loosen\u00a0construction rules\u00a0for gas plants and data centers, there are a slew of state and local requirements both power plants and data centers must satisfy that even in the fastest permitting environments take months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although Trump said it was his idea to allow tech companies to build their own \u201cbehind-the-meter\u201d generating units on site to power data, it\u2019s a mainstream practice to ensure they always have access to power. Dedicated power plants for data centers have only grown in popularity as companies race to get the facilities online.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The president said tech companies can use whichever type of energy they want to use\u2014he specifically mentioned only nuclear, oil and gas\u2014except wind. \u201cWe don\u2019t allow wind,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWind is terrible, it just doesn\u2019t work.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump has sought to end wind energy, the resource that generates a\u00a0tenth\u00a0of the electricity generated in the US, according to the US Energy Information Administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The race to develop AI, which requires data centers to handle the energy-intensive computing, has resulted in plans for 74 new or expanded methane gas plants across the US, according to\u00a0\u00a0from the Environmental Integrity Project, a national nonprofit founded more than 20 years ago by a former director of the EPA\u2019s civil enforcement office.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

These proposed gas-fired plants, which would be dedicated to serving data centers, are expected to generate 143 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power the state of California nearly three times over, according to the report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of those 74 gas plants, 32 are in Texas, 10 are in Ohio, and\u00a0seven are in Pennsylvania.\u00a0<\/p>

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The power plants would also release nearly 662 million tons per year of greenhouse gas pollution, according to the report, which equals the emissions of Australia. This wave of power plants for data centers could also release air pollutants that contribute to smog and lung damage.<\/p>\n

Jen Duggan, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, said in a\u00a0statement\u00a0that \u201can industry of the future should not be chained to dirty fuels of the past.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile data centers may be needed to accommodate shifts in technology, the public has a right to transparency and accountability, clean air, and common sense controls to protect water supplies, especially in areas already struggling with water shortages,\u201d Duggan said. Data centers can use\u00a0copious amounts of water\u00a0to keep servers cool.<\/p>\n

As the data center industry seeks rural parts of the US to roll out the supercomputer warehouses, and the fossil fuel power plants and generators accompanying them, the facilities have quickly become\u00a0highly unpopular\u00a0in communities across America.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some lawmakers have long been vocal with their concerns about data center construction. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation in March proposing a moratorium on all new data center construction until AI safeguards, including worker and environmental protections, are in place.<\/p>\n

Other politicians, who have responded to protests from their constituents with the midterm elections approaching, are seeking\u00a0to distance themselves from the industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican,\u00a0called\u00a0for blocking new data center developments in rural parts of the state during a campaign stop in East Texas last week. It\u2019s a step further than his recent calls for data centers to pay for their own infrastructure costs, reuse their water, add new power generation to the state\u2019s independent electric grid and other measures aimed at limiting the impact on residential communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The New York State Legislature passed a one-year\u00a0moratorium\u00a0in June on data center permits. If Gov. Kathy Hochul signs the bill, New York would become the first state to restrict data centers in such a way. But Hochul, a Democrat who is up for re-election this year, has said that she believes it should be left up to municipalities.<\/p>\n

Monterey Park, California, and Ashville, Ohio, are among the US communities that have passed temporary bans or pauses on new data centers.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration announced last month that it would not set nationwide environmental requirements or recommendations for the data center industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While there are technologies and practices that reduce air pollution and water usage, states and communities know what works best for them, EPA chief Zeldin said at a Politico energy summit in June.<\/p>\n

By not enforcing federal regulations, said Clara Vondrich, senior policy counsel with Public Citizen\u2019s Climate Program, the EPA gave Big Tech the green light to build polluting power plants and water-intensive facilities without any environmental protection enforcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBig Tech executives have lobbied hard to ingratiate themselves into the Trump administration\u2019s orbit,\u201d Vondrich stated. \u201cZeldin made clear that their investment was money well spent.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Palantir Has a Hand in NIH\u2019s Most Ambitious Health Initiative<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThey can\u2019t believe it, that they\u2019re approved in a period of a matter of weeks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump Says He\u2019ll Fast-Track Private Gas Plants to Power AI Data Centers - Moving and Mortgage Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=966\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump Says He\u2019ll Fast-Track Private Gas Plants to Power AI Data Centers - Moving and Mortgage Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cThey can\u2019t believe it, that they\u2019re approved in a period of a matter of weeks.\u201d\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=966\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving and Mortgage Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-08T12:09:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/74981b3d3fb161fc8b1be4a45750457e-1024x575.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"575\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=966#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=966\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6b7c79bcfd888d98f34c5413df7e81a2\"},\"headline\":\"Trump Says He\u2019ll Fast-Track Private Gas Plants to Power AI Data Centers\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-08T12:09:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=966\"},\"wordCount\":1067,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=966#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/21cd20bdd124eadd117b53ab8761d87b.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=966#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=966\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=966\",\"name\":\"Trump Says He\u2019ll Fast-Track Private Gas Plants to Power AI Data Centers - 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