AI Data Centers Driving Surge in Greenhouse Gas Emissions? What the Data Says

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — xAI… Google… Oracle.

These are just a few of the high-tech companies planting their data center roots here in the Mid-South. 

The latest addition is a site on Sycamore View Road near I-40. A company called “The STEM Practice”, affiliated with Oracle, plans to turn it into a data center, a report released Tuesday states.

Just a few weeks ago, xAI, owned by Elon Musk, announced its third Mid-South data center in Southaven.

Google is building a data in West Memphis.

Last year, a company called “5C” built a data center inside the old Fred’s headquarters on Getwell.

While each of these projects vary in size and computing power, they all require one thing — a lot of electricity.

“They’re just enormous energy hogs. They demand a ton of power to run the chips that generative AI uses to answer questions and run queries,” says Abe Scarr, Program Director of Public Interest Research Group Energy and Utilities.

As data centers pop up across the U.S., utilities are rapidly growing their power generation capacity to keep up.

Burning fossil fuels like coal and natural gas is one way, but that also releases pollutants into the atmosphere.

The Rhodium Group, an environmental researcher, found greenhouse gas emissions increased 2.4% in 2025 in the U.S., driven largely by the power sector and a very cold start to last year.

Here in the Mid-South, at least 12 data centers are under construction or are already up and running.

Scott Brooks is a spokesperson for the Tennessee Valley Authority.

“I can speak to data centers in general, which are definitely an increasing part of our industrial load, certainly in the last five years,” Brooks says.

The TVA, which supplies power to most of the FOX13 viewing area, says data centers and population growth are increasing electrical demand.

TVA has added more natural gas power plants to keep up with that demand.

“Natural gas generation is about half the carbon emissions of a typical coal unit. So yeah, it wouldn’t be a surprise then that we’ve cut our carbon emissions by about 50 to 60% since 2005,” Brooks said.

This contradicts the study done by the Rhodium Group, which also found that in the U.S., the use of coal increased by 13%. It also claims a rising demand for power for data centers is to blame.

It specifically references Texas and the Ohio Valley region as areas that required extra electric power.

But it’s not just those areas that environmental groups are concerned with. 

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), a non-partisan environmental legal advocacy group, sent FOX13 a written statement Tuesday stating in part:

“The intense increase of energy demand for data centers is being used to justify an unprecedented buildout of fossil fuel infrastructure in states like Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia. While some data center companies are building clean energy projects, the scale of their energy needs is driving a massive build out of fossil gas plants and pipelines and reliance on dirty diesel and gas generators used on site. This leads to increased risk of health impacts due to poor air quality and more climate-warming pollution.”

As mentioned, Brooks states that TVA has cut its carbon emissions by more than half since 2005. 

David Palmer, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for Entergy Arkansas, expressed a similar sentiment, as Google constructs a $10 billion campus in West Memphis. 

“We’re adding the 600-megawatt solar project to our already largely clean portfolio”…”We currently do have a small amount of coal, and those units are set to come offline at the end of 2028,” Palmer said.

The SELC is still pushing for utility companies to welcome cleaner energy sources to avoid risks to climate, health, and consumers.