Data centers have caused an explosion in US electricity demand over the past two years, according to a new study released Wednesday. More than a third of this new demand, the study found, is clearly linked to gas projects that will power data centers—the equivalent of energy that will power tens of millions of US homes.
The findings by the Global Energy Monitor, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that tracks oil and gas development, come as the Trump administration promotes data center construction and ends pollution regulations on power plants and oil and gas drilling. They will likely also mean an increase in US greenhouse gas emissions, even if some of the projects tracked by the Global Energy Monitor are never built.
“The implications are huge when you’re talking about this size building,” said Jonathan Banks, senior climate adviser at the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit that works to reduce emissions. (The Clean Air Task Force did not participate in the Global Energy Monitor study.)
Building all of the electric power infrastructure that was under development at the end of last year would increase America’s natural gas fleet by nearly 50 percent, according to findings by the Global Energy Monitor. The US currently has about 565 gigawatts of gas-fired power on the grid. If all the development pipeline projects are built, they would add about 252 gigawatts of natural gas capacity to the US fleet. (Estimates vary, but 1 gigawatt can power up to a million homes, depending on local energy use.)
Data centers have helped nearly triple the demand for gas-fired power in the US over the past two years. When the Global Energy Monitor last released its tracker, in early 2024, nearly 85 gigawatts of gas-fired power entered the US development pipeline. A little more than 4 gigawatts of that development was earmarked for data centers. But by 2025, more than 97 gigawatts of projected demand came from projects that will be used to power data centers—almost 25 times more than the 2024 figure.
“About a year and a half ago, we started to see this increase in proposals for data centers directly,” said Jenny Martos, a research analyst at Global Energy Monitor who worked on the report.
To compile the research, the Global Energy Monitor reviewed publicly available data sources for gas power construction under way. These include federal regulatory filings, air quality permits, and public announcements from companies. (Martos says the group compared its findings to industry-standard data.)
As data center construction continues across the country, engineers are scrambling to secure power from any and all sources—and utilities are racing to meet projected demand. This means dirty energy sources are getting a second chance to stay online: coal-fired power plants across the country have recently been granted extensions on their retirement dates, boosted by anti-coal policies from the Trump administration.
Natural gas is a much cleaner energy option than coal-fired power, but gas plants release CO2 carbon emissions. About 35 percent of US energy-related CO2 emissions in 2022 came from the burning of natural gas.
“Gas is cleaner when burned than coal, but when you talk about this much gas, you are talking about a lot of CO.2 associated with it,” said Banks.
A major concern with natural gas is the leakage of methane during the extraction process. Methane stays in the atmosphere for a shorter time than CO2but it is 80 times stronger over a 20-year period. Climate scientists say reducing methane emissions in the short term is critical to controlling climate change in the long term. It is estimated that oil and gas production accounts for a third of all methane emissions in the world; The US is the largest producer of natural gas in the world.
