SAN ANTONIO — Three environmental groups today filed a federal lawsuit against the developers of a pair of data center campuses with gas-fired power plants for building the massive projects without required permits and pollution-control technology.
The data centers on the west side of San Antonio, being built by Vantage and VoltaGrid, have the potential to release thousands of tons of air pollutants – including those that cause smog, which can trigger asthma attacks and cause lung damage – in an area already failing federal standards for smog, according to a federal lawsuit sent today by the Environmental Integrity Project, Sierra Club, and Public Citizen.
The environmental groups on July 22 sent a notice of intent to sue for violations of the Clean Air Act to the companies, as well as to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. But the companies failed to make any progress to address the violations, so the groups filed the lawsuit today.
“Communities should not have to suffer excessive amounts of air pollution from data centers and power plants that fail to follow the Clean Air Act,” said Mary Greene, Director of Enforcement at the Environmental Integrity Project. “We’re suing Vantage and VoltaGrid because industrial development at this scale requires public input and stringent permits that prioritize health and air quality over the unbridled race for an economic edge.”
Josh Smith, senior attorney for the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program, said: “Vantage and VoltaGrid want to come into this Texas neighborhood and dump thousands of tons of air pollutants into an already smoggy community – and they want to do it without the proper permits or even hearing what impacted people have to say. Our lawsuit sends a clear sign that we cannot allow the AI industry to go rogue with our health and future.”
Nandan Joshi, attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group, said: “Texans increasingly distrust data center developers, and for good reason. Texans deserve to hear from developers about the pollution their facilities produce in local communities. The rush to build data centers should not come at the expense of public input and community health.”
Through a publicly announced partnership, Denver-based Vantage and VoltaGrid, of Houston, are building 405 megawatts of dedicated, gas-fired generation capacity at the power plants – enough to power about a fifth of San Antonio’s homes – for a pair of huge data centers using permits meant only for minor sources of air pollution. An additional 151 back-up diesel generators, intended to keep the data centers running around the clock in case of an outage, add an additional 455 MW of generation capacity.
Due to the size of the projects and their potential pollution, the companies should have obtained “major source” pollution control permits as required by the federal Clean Air Act before starting construction. Major source permits require the best available pollution control technology, pollution monitoring, and public participation, including public notice, comment, and the right to request a hearing and appeal the permit.
Instead, Vantage and VoltaGrid entered into a partnership to build data center gas-fired power plants by exploiting Texas’ fast-track approval process for minor sources. These weaker, minor source permits do not require best available pollution controls or monitoring, and the public had no opportunity to weigh in or to object.
According to the legal complaint, the groups seek all remedies available under the law to make the companies stop all construction and operation activities at the data centers and their power plants until they undergo the rigorous permitting the Clean Air Act and Texas law requires and they consider public input.
The power plants for these projects, at 14270 Omicron Drive and 5207 Rogers Road in San Antonio, are called “behind the meter” plants because they are dedicated to the data centers, instead of serving the regional power grid.
On July 1, the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) released a report, “The Power Behind AI,” that revealed that the Vantage/VoltaGrid power plants are among at least 74 being built nationally for the rapidly growing data center industry as “behind-the-meter” gas plants. Nationally, these gas plants could release at least 662 million tons per year of greenhouse gas pollution, which would have the climate-warming impact of 140 million cars and trucks driving for a year or the emissions from the entire nations of Australia or France.
The EIP report pointed out that data center power plants across the nation are sometimes built with “minor source” air pollution control permits when they are major sources of pollution, which is a violation of the Clean Air Act.
For a copy of the complaint, click here.
The Environmental Integrity Project is America’s environmental watchdog. We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to enforcing environmental laws to protect public health and the environment.
With millions of members and supporters, the Sierra Club is America’s largest grassroots environmental organization and works to protect every person’s right to get outdoors, to promote clean energy, to safeguard the health of our communities, to protect wildlife, and to preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power.
Media contact: Tom Pelton, Environmental Integrity Project, (443) 510-2574 or tpelton@environmentalintegrity.org
