AI data centers are getting built thanks to a permit common for dry cleaners

In Abilene, Texas, a homeowner named Omaira Garcia found out her neighbor would be a natural-gas power plant for OpenAI's Stargate data center only after construction started nearby in 2024. The plant sits about 500 yards from her house. She says she got no warning and no chance to weigh in before it was built.

That's because Texas regulators let Stargate and dozens of other data centers get "minor" air permits, the same category used for dry cleaners and auto body shops, instead of the "major" permits normally required for a facility this size. Minor permits skip environmental review and public comment. Stargate's 10 turbines and 62 backup generators are currently allowed to emit more than 1.6 million tons of greenhouse gases and 1,000 tons of other pollutants a year. A year later, the developer applied for a major permit to add 41 more turbines and 18 more generators, a project that would rank among the largest fossil-fuel plants in the state. By the time that bigger permit gets public review, the original facility is already built and running, leaving neighbors little real chance to object.

This is happening across Texas, where at least 38 data centers have gotten similar minor permits since 2024, adding more than 2,100 backup diesel generators statewide. It's not something with a direct fix for homeowners elsewhere, but it shows how the AI data center boom is reshaping air quality and property values in the communities that end up next to these plants, mostly without residents having any say beforehand.