Sierra Club analysis: Data centers could offset the U.S. power sector's emissions reductions over the past 15 years

The Sierra Club's analysis shows that by 2030, U.S. power-sector carbon dioxide emissions could reach 2.1 billion metric tons, about 42% higher than in 2025, offsetting the emissions reductions of the past 15 years. Electricity demand from AI infrastructure is growing faster than the clean-energy grid, and some tech companies are building self-supplied generation facilities that rely mainly on fossil fuels in order to bypass the queue for connecting to the public grid. By 2030, off-grid generation facilities built or commissioned by data center developers could produce more than 460 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, roughly equivalent to Mexico's annual carbon emissions.