Enough is enough in Ohio on polluting data center gas power plants

Today, on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 6 p.m. at the New Albany High School, the Ohio Power Siting Board will hold a public hearing for the PowerConneX New Albany 3 Energy Center, the third major gas combustion plant to power an EdgeConneX data center in the New Albany International Business Park.

If approved, PowerConneX 3 will become the seventh gas plant to power a data center in the New Albany business park. Together these seven gas plants total 1936 MW – roughly equivalent to the electricity demand of over 1.3 million homes.

These seven gas plants have the potential to emit 11.9 million tons of greenhouse gas pollution, 766 tons of fine particulate matter, and hundreds of tons each of other harmful pollutants such as nitrous oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds, and hazardous air pollutants each year – all next to populated areas of New Albany and Licking County. 

Serious health effects

Particularly harmful to human health is the fine particulate matter – less than 2.5 micrometers or 1/30th the width of a human hair.

This pollutant is breathed deep into the lungs, enters the bloodstream, and causes inflammation throughout the body.

Extensive scientific evidence shows that long-term exposure to fine particulate matter is associated with heart disease, stroke, respiratory illness, asthma, and premature death. 

A 2026 study of a 135 MW gas plant powering a data center in Virginia found that it could result in $53 million to $99 million in annual health-related damages due to missed work, missed school, hospitalizations, and 3.4 to 6.5 additional deaths per year in the impacted region.

The study was conducted by a Harvard-affiliated health scientist. 

The seven gas plants approved and proposed in New Albany have a combined power output 14 times larger than the gas plant studied in Virginia.

Most vulnerable are children whose lungs are still developing. Almost 13,300 children live within a five-mile radius of the business park where these seven gas plants will be operated.

Inefficient technology

One reason these gas plants powering data centers are so polluting is they are not using the best available technology. Most utility grade gas plants use combined cycle turbines, which generate electricity from the combusted gas in two different turbines. 

The gas plants in New Albany are using less efficient technology. This includes simple cycle turbines, which generate electricity in only a single stage, with the polluting exhaust and waste heat expelled out of a short stack at 800 degrees.

Even worse, the PowerConneX 3 gas plant will use 30 reciprocating internal combustion engines – like a gas car engine, only longer than a full-sized school bus and about as tall as a two-story house. Because this equipment is less efficient, it uses more gas to generate the same amount of electricity, resulting in more pollution.

Data centers are installing this more polluting equipment because it’s faster to procure and construct. But more pollution means accelerated climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions and worsened air quality due to pollutants like particulate matter.

That is not acceptable. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, July 2026 was the warmest month on record for the contiguous United States. This past July, the Columbus area set a record for the worst-ever air quality index since the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission began keeping records in 1999.

Accelerated process

Another issue is the Ohio Power Siting Board’s process for approving the gas plants powering data centers. Five plants in the New Albany business park have already been approved – three through the accelerated application process that included no public notice, no public hearing, and automatic approval – not even a formal vote by board members. 

For the two gas plants approved through the standard application process, the siting board held public hearings as required. But these two hearings, held in August and October of last year, each had only two to three individuals offer testimony. All such individuals were either oil and gas industry representatives or representatives from unions whose members would financially benefit from these projects.

While the first few gas plants in New Albany were approved quietly, word is now getting out, and area residents have had enough. More than 50 people packed a New Albany meeting room on October 6 for the most recent public hearing on the 500 MW NEO Power Generation Facility, the fourth gas plant planned to power Meta’s Prometheus data center, and the sixth gas plant proposed for the New Albany business park.

Five representatives from the oil and gas industry and unions spoke in favor of NEO, while 20 people passionately voiced their opposition to the project. The opposition included a few environmental advocates from other parts of the state, but the vast majority were residents of New Albany and surrounding communities. 

While data centers say they are creating jobs and contributing to our communities, no amount of economic benefits can outweigh the cost to the environment and the public’s health that will result from a massive build-out of inefficient, subpar natural gas technology. 

One need not be against data centers, AI, or natural gas power to oppose these gas plants. Rather, this is simply too much, too fast, and too polluting.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license. View the original article.