Data centers have A fresh study released Wednesday shows that demand for natural gas power has surged in the U.S. over the past two years. Research has shown that more than a third of this fresh demand is clearly tied to the natural gas projects that will power data centers – the equivalent of energy that would power tens of millions of US homes.
The arrangements from Global Energy Monitor, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that tracks oil and gas developments, comes at a time when the Trump administration is both encouraging data center construction and rolling back pollution regulations on power plants and oil and gas extraction. They will almost certainly mean an boost in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, even if some of the projects monitored by Global Energy Monitor never happen.
“The implications are enormous when we’re talking about development of this size,” says Jonathan Banks, senior climate adviser at the Spotless Air Task Force, a nonprofit that works to reduce emissions. (The Spotless Air Task Force was not involved in the Global Energy Monitor study.)
Global Energy Monitor’s findings show that building the entire gas-fired energy infrastructure, which was in the works slow last year, could boost the U.S. gas fleet by nearly 50 percent. USA currently has approximately 565 gigawatts of gas power on the grid. If all planned projects are completed, it would add nearly 252 gigawatts of gas-fired power to the U.S. fleet. (Estimates vary, but 1 gigawatt could power up to a million homes, depending on energy exploit in the region.)
Over the past two years, data centers have helped nearly triple U.S. demand for natural gas power. When Global Energy Monitor last released its tracker in early 2024, it recorded about 85 gigawatts of gas-fired power under development in the US. Just over 4 gigawatts of this investment was explicitly allocated to data centers. However, in 2025, more than 97 gigawatts of monitored demand came from projects that will be used to power data centers – almost 25 times the 2024 figure.
“About a year and a half ago, we started seeing an increase in proposals specifically for data centers,” says Jenny Martos, a research analyst at Global Energy Monitor who worked on the report.
To compile the research findings, Global Energy Monitor reviewed publicly available data sources on the pipeline’s gas plant expansion. These include state-level regulatory filings, air quality permits, and company public announcements. (Martos says the group compared its findings to industry data as a benchmark).
As data center expansion continues across the country, developers are scrambling to secure power from any source and utilities are racing to meet anticipated demand. That means dirtier energy sources are getting a second chance to stay online: coal-fired power plants across the country were recently granted extensions to their retirement dates, helped by the Trump administration’s coal-friendly policies.
Natural gas is a much cleaner energy option than coal-fired power, but gas-fired power plants emit CO22 emissions. ABOUT 35 percent of Americans related to energy CON2 emissions in 2022 came from burning natural gas.
“Gas is cleaner when burned than coal, but when you say that much gas, you mean a lot of CO2 related to this,” says Banks.
A bigger problem with natural gas is methane leaks during the extraction process. Methane stays in the atmosphere for a shorter time than CO2but it is true 80 times stronger in 20 years. Climate scientists say reducing methane emissions in the tiny term is crucial to controlling climate change in the long term. Oil and gas extraction is estimated to cause one third of all global methane leaks; USA it the largest producer of natural gas in the world.