Report Says 130 New Gas-Fired Power Projects Proposed in Texas

A nonprofit environmental group said at least 130 natural gas-fired power plant projects are planned in Texas over the next few years as part of that state’s effort to meet growing demand for energy. The Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), in a report published June 11, said the projects would provide more than 58 GW of new generation capacity, while noting that many of the proposed facilities may not move beyond the planning stage.

The group noted the build-out is supported by the Texas Energy Fund, a taxpayer-supported program created by state lawmakers that provides grants and loans for construction of power generation projects. The fund was created in the wake of the February 2021 Uri winter storm, when as estimated 10 million Texans lost power, prompting officials to look at how to avoid future blackouts caused by extreme weather or other events.

The group in its report said it “has created a statewide inventory of proposed gas power plant projects … using information from a wide variety of publicly available sources, including the Energy Information Administration, Global Energy Monitor, ERCOT [Electrical Reliability Council of Texas, the state grid manager], application documents for the Texas Energy Fund, permit documents from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, trade publications, and news articles.” The report focused not only on the construction of new gas-fired projects, but also on the environmental impact, saying the new facilities would, if built, emit an estimated 115 million tons of greenhouse gases (GHG).

The group said the proposed gas-burning projects are at least 108 new power plants, 17 expansions, and five projects for which specifics have not been announced. The group in a news release related to the report also said “Texas has illegally rubber-stamped permits for the construction of at least three large power plants and potentially others—without the stringent air pollution limits or public hearings required under the federal Clean Air Act.”

The inventory of power plants compiled by the Environmental Integrity Project is available in a spreadsheet here. Click on the projects tab to access the list of projects.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on June 11 proposed new rules for the nation’s fossil fuel-burning power plants that would remove limits on GHG, a move that could keep extend the lifecycles of existing coal- and natural gas-fired power plants, and spur new construction of fossil fuel-based generation units.

“To meet its increasing demand for electricity, Texas should be encouraging more clean energy instead of feeding public subsidies to dirty fossil fuels,” said Jen Duggan, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project. “Texas must also immediately stop issuing illegal permits in the shadows without the stringent air pollution limits that are required by the Clean Air Act.”

Smaller Units Not Included in Inventory

The EIP said that be included in the inventory, “a power plant project must be located in Texas, expect to run primarily off of natural gas, and add at least 100 MW of new generating capacity.” That means smaller gas-fired generation projects, which could include some designed “to power small or medium-sized data centers,” are not part of the inventory.

The group that as of April of this year, its inventory “contained 130 proposed projects. Cumulatively these plants could add 58.55 GW of natural gas generating capacity to the Texas grid, which could serve 14.6 million residential ERCOT customers during peak demand hours.” The report also said building new gas-fired power plants likely would bring more construction of infrastructure to both produce and transport natural gas within the state.

The EIP said that ERCOT in its 2025 load forecast “estimates that of the 52 GW of new large-load electricity demand [from industrial facilities with peak demand of at least 75 MW] that will come online by 2031, over 50%—32.6 GW—of the predicted large load growth is expected to come from data centers.”

Lawmakers in the state budget passed at the end of May earmarked another $5 billion, on top of the original $10 billion, for the Texas Energy Fund. The EIP noted, though, that as of this week the fund “has not dispensed any loans for new generating units and is struggling to keep applicants from withdrawing from the program. In total, over 4.9 GW of potential new gas-fired generating capacity has either withdrawn from or been denied by the fund as of May 2025.”

This article will be updated.

—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.