data center
Floodlight works with PBS to explore OpenAI’s flagship data center.
Omayra Garcia, or OG as she prefers, stands on the border between her small ranch in Abilene, Texas, and OpenAI’s flagship Stargate data center. The on-site gas power plant is about 500 meters from her home. (Evan Simon/Floodlight)
Texas is ground zero for the massive fossil fuel build-up of the AI industry happening across the country. Lured by rich gas reserves and an industry-friendly government, AI companies flocked to the Lone Star State in droves to build custom power plants capable of fueling entire cities.
The state has more than 80 gigawatts of new gas power plants in the construction pipeline, more than any other country outside China. About half of these gas plants will only power data centers, according to Global Energy Monitor.
Floodlight teamed up with PBS’ science and nature series Overview to explore what’s really going on at OpenAI’s Stargate facility, one of the state’s largest operating data centers, to show how the AI boom is already impacting people living in our backyards.
“We’re trapped here,” said Omayra Garcia, an Air Force veteran who lives with his family just outside the Stargate in Abilene. Garcia could see the data center’s 10 gas-powered turbines from inside his home, and was shocked to learn that Stargate developers were expanding the on-site power plant to a total of 51 turbines and 80 backup diesel generators.
“I just don’t understand how it’s going to affect me and my health in the future,” she said.
Floodlight and PBS also spoke with former environmental regulators in Texas who said their former employers allowed factories to begin operating without public input, granting small-scale permits often associated with laundromats and auto repair shops.
“It seems very intentional for data centers to seek these low-level pre-construction approvals, which give them the authority to begin operations without the need for public notice and without public input or participation,” said Kathryn Guerra, who provided regulatory compliance support for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s environmental advocacy division before joining the watchdog group Public Citizen.
But even with the proper permits, Guerra said he has serious doubts about the ability of previous government agencies to properly enforce environmental laws when it comes to the AI boom.
“The data center industry is expanding faster than the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is able to adequately regulate it,” she said.
Watch the video above to experience life in the Wild West of the AI fossil fuel boom and see rare thermal images documenting pollution at one of the nation’s hottest data centers.
