RT @HedgieMarkets
🦔Google's plan to partly power a Texas data center through a 933-megawatt natural gas plant has been confirmed after Cleanview researchers uncovered the permit application. The plant would emit 4.5 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, more than the entire city of San Francisco. Google pledged carbon-free operations by 2030 in 2020, reported a 48% rise in emissions by 2024, and by 2025 had quietly reframed its climate commitments as climate moonshots, a term it uses for speculative projects that may or may not happen. Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft are making the same pivot.

My Take
The climate commitments these companies made were always going to last exactly as long as they were cheaper than the alternative. Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft all pledged net-zero goals during a period when renewables were becoming cost competitive and climate leadership was good PR. AI changed the economics. The demand is too large, the timelines too short, and gas is available now. So the commitments are being quietly retired or reframed.

Google's head of advanced energy was asked directly last week how natural gas fits with the company's clean energy goals. His answer was we don't have anything to say on that. These were always profit-driven businesses. The climate commitments were real when they were also good business. They are becoming inconvenient and so they are going away.

Hedgie🤗

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/02/google-ai-datacenter