35 natural gas turbines, 7.65 GW of power, barely connected to the Texas grid — this plant exists for one reason: to keep Amazon's new data center in Pecos County from ever losing power.
According to The New York Times, the GW Ranch power plant — funded by Amazon — has secured emissions permits from the state of Texas allowing up to 33 million tons of CO2. Cleanview, which tracks data centers and their associated power projects, points out that this figure actually exceeds the emissions of the largest coal plant currently operating in the U.S. In practice, plants rarely hit their permitted ceiling, but the fact that the ceiling was set this loose already tells you everything. Amazon has confirmed it purchased the land and plans to buy power directly from GW Ranch.
Amazon isn't alone in cutting data centers loose from the public grid. Meta and Google have also started building their own power plants in recent years, turning back to non-renewable sources like gas and coal to keep up with AI's power demands, while the Trump administration loosens restrictions on these high-emission plants. What sets GW Ranch apart is scale — it could end up being one of the most polluting power plants in the entire country, and unlike most plants, it was built from day one for a single purpose: powering AI.
This sits awkwardly against Amazon's climate pledges. Jeff Bezos once promised the company would reach net-zero carbon by 2040, but Amazon's emissions have climbed year after year as AI demand surges. Amazon spokesperson Margaret Callahan told The New York Times, "The world looks different today than when we first made this climate commitment," but "our commitment hasn't changed." The words stay right where they are. So does the number on the plant's permit.
