New Sierra Club Map Shows Expensive U.S. Gas Buildout

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Washington, D.C. — Today, the Sierra Club released a new tracker which shows that while Americans are grappling with soaring costs, utility companies are planning to add nearly 500 more expensive and polluting gas-fired power plants across the country.

Over the past year, electricity prices increased at double the rate of inflation. Rather than investing in more wind and solar power—the cheapest forms of energy—utility companies are planning to increase currently online gas power plant capacity by nearly 50 percent nationwide.

Sierra Club’s planned gas tracker shows the states with the most planned gas power plant capacity are: Texas, Georgia, Indiana, Virginia, Missouri, and Arizona. In all of these states, there are proposals for massive data centers. While gas power plants already provide more electricity for data center use than any other fuel, renewable energy continues to outperform gas generation in cost and health outcomes. Renewable energy has also outperformed gas plants during extreme weather when families need reliable power the most.

In response, Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign Director Laurie Williams issued the following statement: 

“It is unacceptable that while families are struggling to make ends meet, utility companies are choosing to build even more expensive gas plants to power Big Tech’s data centers instead of transitioning to cheaper, cleaner renewable energy. Renewable energy is cleaner, cheaper, faster, and yet utility companies are relying on dirty, expensive fossil fuels.

“If utility companies continue this reliance on fossil fuels, Americans across the country will see even higher bills month after month. When hardworking families wonder where all their hard-earned dollars are going and why their loved ones are getting sick from asthma, heart and lung disease, or cancer, they can look to utilities exploiting the AI data center boom and billionaire tech CEOs demanding speed over cost.”

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.