SAN ANTONIO – Three environmental groups took legal action today against the developers of a pair of data center campuses, with two gas-fired power plants and 151 backup diesel generators, for building the massive projects without the pollution control permits or public hearings required by law.
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 lung damage – in an area already failing federal standards for smog, according to a notice of intent to sue sent today by the Environmental Integrity Project, Sierra Club, and Public Citizen.
The developers are building 423 megawatts of dedicated generation capacity – 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. 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 hearings.
Instead, Denver-based Vantage and VoltaGrid, of Houston, entered into a partnership to build power plants and data centers in San Antonio 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 object, as required by law, according to the legal notice.
“The quest to build and power data centers should not come at the cost of human health and air quality. The federal Clean Air Act is meant to protect against what is happening in San Antonio,” said Mary Greene, Director of Enforcement at the Environmental Integrity Project. “Permitting shenanigans like this are a threat to public health and an affront to the rule of law.”
“It’s clear that Americans don’t want these facilities ruining their communities, their air, and their water, so data center developers and Trump’s EPA are trying to subvert laws meant to protect everyday people,” said Kristin Henry, Managing Attorney for the Sierra Club. “They can’t get away with it, and our legal action today shows that people are paying attention and we’ll keep fighting such blatant attempts to disregard the Clean Air Act at the expense of our future.”
“Data center developers are not entitled to special treatment under the Clean Air Act,” said Nandan Joshi, Attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group. “Pollution that comes from data centers harms families and communities. San Antonio residents deserve the same protections as any community facing major industrial pollution.”
According to the legal notice letter, the two data center campuses and their power plants have the combined potential to emit about 5,600 tons per year of nitrogen oxides and 323 tons per year of volatile organic chemicals, both of which contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone (smog). These projects also have the potential to emit roughly 1,190 tons per year of carbon monoxide and more than 70 tons per year of formaldehyde, which can cause cancer.
The environmental groups sent the notice of intent to sue for violations of the Clean Air Act to Vantage and VoltaGrid as well as to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. If the violations are not resolved within 60 days, the environmental groups intend to file suit in federal court.
For violating the Clean Air Act, the companies face fines of up to $124,426 per day for the more than two years that construction and operation of the data centers has been ongoing. Both of the data centers and their power plants, at 14270 Omicron Drive and 5207 Rogers Road in San Antonio, are complete and at least partially operational, despite the lack of required pre-construction permits, according to the notice. The power plants for these projects 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.
In 2024 and 2025, Vantage and VoltaGrid obtained four “minor source” air pollution control permits from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to construct two gas-fired power plants plus 151 backup diesel-powered industrial generators at data center campuses at 14270 Omicron Drive and 5207 Rogers Road in San Antonio. The minor permits lack requirements for air pollution monitoring and reporting or the best available pollution control equipment.
According to the notice, the power plants must obtain major source permits with strict pollution limits and monitoring requirements because of the large volume of pollution they have the potential to emit, including formaldehyde, a carcinogen.
For a copy of the notice, 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
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