Don’t Build a Government-Owned Gas Giant for Big Tech

OpenAI wants to build an artificial intelligence data center campus so enormous that it could require roughly as much electricity as New York City uses on a summer day.

And the federal government is helping make it possible.

The Department of Energy is leasing federal land at a former uranium enrichment site in Ohio for the massive development. Plans call for 10 gigawatts of new power generation — including at least 9.2 gigawatts of fossil gas — and reporting indicates the gas facilities would ultimately be owned by the U.S. government and operated by a private company.

If completed, the gas buildout would rank among the largest in the world. Feeding a facility this enormous would require staggering amounts of fossil gas while producing substantial climate and air pollution.

This could set a dangerous new precedent for U.S. climate and energy policy. At a moment when we should be moving away from fossil fuels, the federal government could instead become the owner of one of the largest gas-burning power facilities on the planet — built to serve the exploding energy demands of the AI industry.

And this is not happening in isolation. Big Tech companies are rapidly expanding data centers and pursuing enormous amounts of new power as the AI boom drives electricity demand sharply higher.

If this model takes hold, it could usher in a whole new generation of government-backed fossil fuel infrastructure for data centers across the country. Instead of using public resources to accelerate the transition to clean energy, Washington could help lock in decades of new gas demand, methane pollution, and carbon emissions.

The stakes go far beyond one project in Ohio. The choices being made now could determine whether the AI boom accelerates the clean energy transition — or becomes an excuse for the next wave of fossil fuel megaprojects.

OpenAI, Nvidia, SoftBank, and their partners have access to staggering amounts of private capital. They should not need federal land or the prospect of government-owned fossil fuel infrastructure to power their expansion.

The federal government should draw a line now: America’s AI boom cannot become a federally supported fossil fuel boom.

Please sign the petition to tell the U.S. Department of Energy: Stop federal support for this massive gas buildout. Don’t use public land and public assets to fuel Big Tech’s fossil fuel expansion. Require AI developers to meet their enormous new energy needs with cleaner power instead.

The petition to the U.S. Department of Energy reads: Stop federal support for the massive 9.2-gigawatt gas buildout planned to power OpenAI’s Ohio data center. Don’t use federal land, federal authority, or public ownership to lock America into decades of fossil fuel pollution for Big Tech. Require this enormous new electricity demand to be met with cleaner energy instead.
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Source:

https://www.axios.com/2026/08/17/openai-nvidia-ohio-data-center-sb-energy