Growing opposition to data centers' excessive gas consumption prompts increased Senate scrutiny on Meta

A letter from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island has been sent to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, pressing for information about the energy usage and emissions of Meta's new data center complex in Louisiana. The scale and secrecy surrounding this project have made it particularly controversial.

The senator's letter states that Meta's actions fly in the face of its climate commitments and its claims of achieving net zero emissions in its global operations. The letter asks for analyses, data, or calculations that show how much energy the Meta projects the facility to use, why other generating sources wouldn't work instead of gas, and why Meta hasn't announced investments into carbon capture equipment or carbon dioxide removal.

As of the email, Meta had not yet finalized a response to Sen. Whitehouse's letter. Meta spokesperson Ashley Settle stated that the company looks forward to providing a response. Settle also noted that Meta works closely with Entergy, the utility company, to plan for its energy needs and Entergy's overall projected growth.

Entergy has proposed building multiple massive new fossil gas plants to power the data center. However, the company providing the power supply for the planned Meta data center completion in Louisiana is Arbor Energy, which is building a biomass power plant there to supply the data center with electricity while capturing carbon dioxide.

The data center is expected to have an electricity appetite nearly three times larger than the total power demand from the city of New Orleans. By January, lawmakers in at least eight states had plans to propose new guardrails on how tech companies power server farms. This move is a response to the growing concern over the energy consumption and emissions of data centers.

An analysis by The Guardian found that the total emissions from in-house data centers owned by Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Meta are nearly 8% higher than the official tally. This revelation has added to the mounting backlash against the impacts of the United States' data center construction boom.

A Harvard Law School paper from March suggests ratepayers could be responsible for billions of dollars in new power investments primarily benefiting tech giants. This concern is echoed in Sen. Whitehouse's letter, which notes that even alternative solutions like colocation, peak shaving, and special contracts could potentially shift costs to consumers.

Entergy, Louisiana's largest utility, filed hundreds of pages of redacted documents to state regulators regarding its partnership with an unnamed company for the new gas plants. Bills proposing data center regulations have been proposed in both blue states (like New York) and deep-red states (like Texas).

Meta, in response to the climate concerns, has pledged to help triple U.S. production of nuclear power and made early investments in geothermal energy. It remains to be seen how Meta will address the issues raised in Sen. Whitehouse's letter and the broader concerns about the environmental impact of its data center projects. Meta spokesperson Ashley Settle also noted that the company looks forward to providing a response to Sen. Whitehouse's letter.

Growing opposition to data centers' excessive gas consumption prompts increased Senate scrutiny on Meta