Oil and Gas Watch

February 19, 2026

Massive gas-powered data center in Permian Basin is latest in string of Texas AI computing hubs

Texas’s environmental agency recently approved the latest in a string of large gas-fired power plants to support the state’s burgeoning data center industrial complex. The GW Ranch Project, set to be constructed in Pecos County, West Texas, in the Permian Basin, could generate up to 7.65 gigawatts of electricity, making it the largest power project in the U.S. One gigawatt of electricity can power about 750,000 homes, so this single data center complex could power over five million homes, or a large American city.

Courtney Bernhardt

With 14 ethane cracker projects looming, analysts wonder whether companies are overbuilding

Market analysts are pointing to overbuilding an uncertainty caused by trade disputes as a reason for a cooling global market for ethylene, derived from oil and gas production. Despite this turbulence, as of June 2025, at least 14 projects to build new or expand U.S. ethylene production have been announced or are moving ahead,

In Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful’ bill, ugly contradictions and giveaways to industry

President Donald Trump campaigned on lowering energy costs, but his "Big Beautiful" spending bill is expected to raise energy costs for households by $280 per year. Rather than cutting carbon capture subsidies, it increases them, as long as that carbon is used to force more oil and gas out of the ground. It also lowered royalty rates paid by oil and gas companies to the federal government, increasing the national debt, along with opening up more public lands for drilling.

Brendan Gibbons

Bills that target the public's right to monitor air pollution are popping up in state legislatures

In 2024, the Louisiana legislature passed a bill that effectively bans community groups from using their own air monitoring to warn residents about pollution or publicly advocate for cleanup action. Industry advocates are pushing similar bills to restrict air pollution monitoring around the country, with Kentucky passing a similar law this year. Legislators in Ohio and West Virginia have also considered bills that would restrict the use of data from local groups doing their own independent air monitoring.

Brendan Gibbons

Even with Gulf drilling down, Trump Administration weighs expanding drilling to new coasts

The number of oil and gas drilling rigs operating in the Gulf of Mexico today is about half of what it was a year ago, with 10 rigs working on June 27, compared to 19 a year earlier. In the face of this slump, the oil and gas industry is lobbying the Trump Administration to expand drilling rights into new coastal areas where it has been banned for years. These include the Atlantic Coast from the Carolinas to Florida, and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, off Florida and Alabama.

Texas power demand fuels flood of gas plants and air pollution

Spurred by data centers and population growth, demand for electricity in Texas is expected to nearly double by 2034. That increase in demand is leading to a wave of 130 new gas-fired power plant projects, according to a recent inventory and analysis by the Environmental Integrity Project. If built, they could emit greenhouse gases equivalent to those from 26.8 million cars and trucks driven for one year or 30 coal-fired power plants.