− CLIMATE — Artificial intelligence is often associated with ludicrous amounts of electricity, and therefore planet-heati…+ EDUCATION — While many schools in England have banned smartphones, in Estonia – regarded as the new European education po…− EDUCATION — In a Cambridge classroom, Joseph, 10, trained his AI model to discern between drawings of apples and drawings…− EDUCATION — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently told a US podcast that if he was graduating today, “I would feel like the luck…− EDUCATION — I disagree with the decision of lecturers to use artificial intelligence to create teaching materials (‘We co…− BUSINESS — Americans are growing worried about what artificial intelligence portends for their futures. Eight in 10 Amer…− BUSINESS — Accenture has reportedly begun calling its near 800,000 employees “reinventors”, as the consultancy tries to…− LABOR — US workers overwhelmingly support pro-worker policies on artificial intelligence (AI) and view labor unions a…
TruaceTracing the truth around AISunday, July 12, 2026
Subscribe
TRV-2026-0090Version 1 · Certified

Written 2026-07-12 20:54:50 UTC · current record

Reason for this version

Certified into the record

Canonical text (the exact bytes fingerprinted)

TRUVACE RECORD VERSION
record: TRV-2026-0090
version: 1
kind: certified
reason: Certified into the record
timestamp: 2026-07-12T20:54:50.941193Z
status: published
lens: g_space
sector: climate
headline: US leads record global surge in gas-fired power driven by AI demands, with big costs for the climate
dek: The US is leading a huge global surge in new gas-fired power generation that will cause a major leap in planet-heating emissions, with this record boom driven by the expansion of energy-hungry datacenters to service artificial intelligence, according to a new forecast. This year is set to shatter the annual record for new gas power additions around the world, with projects in development expected to grow existing global gas capacity by nearly 50%, a report by Global Energy Monitor (GEM) found. The US is at the forefront of a global push for gas that is set to escalate over the next five years, after tripling its planned gas-fired capacity in 2025. Much of this new capacity will be devoted to the vast electricity needs of AI, with a third of the 252 gigawatts of gas power in development set to be situated on site at datacenters. All of this new gas energy is set to come at a significant cost to the climate, amid ongoing warnings from scientists that fossil fuels must be rapidly phased out to avoid disastrous global heating. The gas projects in development in the US will, if all completed, cause 12.1bn tonnes in carbon dioxide emissions over their lifetimes, which is double the current annual emissions coming from all sources in the US. Worldwide, the planned gas boom will cause 53.2bn tonnes of emissions over projects’ lifetimes if fulfilled, pushing the planet towards even worse heatwaves, droughts, floods and other climate impacts. “Locking in new gas plants to meet uncertain AI energy demand means hard-wiring decades of pollution into a gambit that could be solved with flexible, clean power,” said Jenny Martos, project manager at GEM’s oil and gas plant tracker. “As the AI bubble inflates, the US must decide whether it will double down on a fossil future while the rest of the world pivots to renewables.” Several countries around the world are betting big on gas, according to GEM’s tracker, which tallies projects that have been announced or are at various stages of construction. Last year, China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, installed 22.4GW of gas, its most gas capacity ever for single year. But it is the US that is leading the way, accounting for nearly a quarter of all global gas capacity in development, followed by China, Vietnam, Iraq and Brazil. Texas is the center of this boom in the US, with 57.9GW of new gas power under way last year, leading Louisiana and Pennsylvania. In 2026, new gas additions are set to surpass the annual record of 100GW of new gas added in the US, set in 2002. Much of this power will be swallowed up by vast datacenters being built by tech companies to grow the AI industry. The growth of AI has been enthusiastically promoted by Donald Trump, with the president stating his administration will do “whatever it takes” for the US to lead in AI, vowing to sweep away “foolish rules” that slow the build-out of datacenters. The proliferation of datacenters has, however, caused a bump in greenhouse gas emissions and boosted demand for electricity. This has raised power bills for many Americans, despite Trump’s promise to cut such costs in half in his first year in office. The administration has also blocked numerous clean energy projects and has escalated the export of liquified natural gas, with both measures raising the price of energy for American households, experts say. Domestic gas prices rose last year and, after a static 2026, are forecast to surge again next year. “Frenzied datacenter growth with lit
gain_reading: US leads record global surge in gas-fired power driven by AI demands, with big costs for the climate: The proliferation of datacenters has, however, caused a bump in greenhouse gas emissions and boosted demand for electricity.
problem_reading: (none)
limitation: Automated evidence review: this reading is limited to the cited source set and may change as contradicting evidence or broader outcome data enters the record.
tag: Evidence-backed gain
key_points: The US is leading a huge global surge in new gas-fired power generation that will cause a major leap in planet-heating emissions, with this record boom driven by the expansion of energy-hungry datacenters to service artificial intelligence, according to a new forecast. | This year is set to shatter the annual record for new gas power additions around the world, with projects in development expected to grow existing global gas capacity by nearly 50%, a report by Global Energy Monitor (GEM) found. | The US is at the forefront of a global push for gas that is set to escalate over the next five years, after tripling its planned gas-fired capacity in 2025.
rundown: The US is leading a huge global surge in new gas-fired power generation that will cause a major leap in planet-heating emissions, with this record boom driven by the expansion of energy-hungry datacenters to service artificial intelligence, according to a new forecast. This year is set to shatter the annual record for new gas power additions around the world, with projects in development expected to grow existing global gas capacity by nearly 50%, a report by Global Energy Monitor (GEM) found.

The US is at the forefront of a global push for gas that is set to escalate over the next five years, after tripling its planned gas-fired capacity in 2025. Much of this new capacity will be devoted to the vast electricity needs of AI, with a third of the 252 gigawatts of gas power in development set to be situated on site at datacenters.
sources:
- journalism | The Guardian | https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/29/gas-power-ai-climate | 2026-01-29
prev: 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
sha256
67749a4afde7679441e2b26dae99903a78ba07b5f57068caf84aa41ba114b3b0
previous
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Verify this record
How to verify without trusting this page

Fetch the canonical text of any version from /api/record/TRV-2026-0090 and hash it yourself — for example shasum -a 256 on the saved canonical field. The result must equal content_hash, and each version’s text ends with prev:followed by the prior version’s hash (version 1 chains to 64 zeros). If a single character of any version had been altered since certification, the chain would not reproduce.