TCEQ approves air permits for Fermi America’s proposed data center power plant

Описание: Air quality permits for Fermi America’s proposed data center were approved Wednesday by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), marking a significant step toward completing what is being described as the world’s largest data center.

The permits were requested for a natural gas-fired power plant that will supply electricity to the facility. During Wednesday’s meeting, commissioners considered whether to grant requests for contested case hearings submitted by groups opposing the permits.

Among those groups was the Panhandle First Coalition, which sought an opportunity to formally present concerns about potential environmental and health impacts.

“We would have shown how much the pollution from that affects communities — everything from a person's health, from how they breathe to how their heart is affected, to birth declines,” said Kendra Seawright, a representative of the coalition.

Seawright said the group hired legal representation to pursue the case and argued that expert input should have been considered.


“TCU's whole job, their whole business is knowing how much pollution affects people, their health, and how far away from a community that it should be granted, and what things that we can put in the space to prevent that from affecting people,” Seawright said. “And for them to just ignore it is terrifying.”

After a brief discussion, however, the commission voted not to grant the requests for a contested case hearing.

TCEQ Commissioner Catarina Gonzales explained the reasoning behind the decision.

“I think that all the groups and associations hearing a request failed to identify members of the group or association that would otherwise have standing to request a hearing in their own right, as required by our rules,” Gonzales said. “And for the remaining requesters, the intervening distance between the residences and the facility makes it unlikely they will be impacted in a manner different from the general public.”

Following the decision, Fermi America released a statement expressing support for the commission’s action.

“With the issuance of today's air permit and the support of our fellow West Texans, Fermi is uniquely positioned to help America's hyperscalers quickly secure the private power they need at scale,” the statement read.

The approval of the air permits clears a major regulatory hurdle for the project as development moves forward.

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