From her front window in Middleton Township, Ohio, Breanne Kidd once watched the sunrise over farmland as she prepared for toddlers at her home daycare. Over the past year, that view has been replaced by cranes, steel and dust from construction of Meta's 800-acre Bowling Green data center - and a large natural gas power plant she wasn't told about, now rising across the street.
The Apollo Generating Station is one of at least 57 off-grid power plants proposed or under construction in the U.S. to serve individual data centers, with a combined capacity of 73,000 megawatts - enough for tens of millions of homes. A Reuters review of regulatory filings and interviews shows more than a dozen such projects won approval in under a year, often with little or no public notice, environmental review or hearings.
Fast-tracked approvals bypass public input
Developers argue these off-grid plants, built for private customers like data centers, are exempt from many permitting rules. In Ohio, a law passed last year allows certain plants to win approval in as little as 45 days without public hearings. The Apollo facility was approved by the Ohio Power Siting Board on February 3 - less than three months after plans were submitted - and its draft air permit wasn't publicly available until March, after construction started.
At least two such plants are already operating: Elon Musk's xAI facility outside Memphis and another in Ashburn, Virginia serving Vantage Data Centers. The fast-tracking methods, including non-disclosure agreements, shell companies, and redacted public documents, have not previously been reported at this scale. "It's not like we're two streets away. We're literally across the street. I'm living next to a threat," Kidd said.
Confidentiality agreements and legislative shields
Ohio lawmakers also inserted a provision into an unrelated college athletics bill that shields big projects like data centers from public records laws. Officials releasing such information could face criminal charges. The measure was added by Republican state Senator Brian Chavez, whose top two 2025 donors - a construction union and utility NiSource - each contributed $10,000, election finance records show.
Supporters say confidentiality protects sensitive business information, but critics argue it limits democratic accountability. "It undermines our fundamental concepts of democracy: transparency and accountability," said Andrew Kear, a political scientist at Bowling Green State University. Microsoft said in March it would stop using non-disclosure agreements nationwide after criticism over projects in Wisconsin.
Health and safety concerns mount
Most of these plants burn natural gas, which emits nitrogen oxides, fine-particulate pollution linked to respiratory illness, and greenhouse gases. Harvard researcher Michael Cork called the AI industry's off-grid gas generation "one of the largest under-examined air-quality risks in the country."
In West Virginia, lawmakers exempted certain data center microgrids from local zoning laws, limiting community opposition. A large gas plant proposed in Tucker County received a state air permit the same year, with key technical details redacted from public documents. In Tennessee and Mississippi, Reuters previously reported xAI has operated gas turbines without permits to power its Colossus data centers, claiming the units are exempt because they are temporary and not connected to the grid.
Brian Rothenberg, a township trustee near Columbus, Ohio, told Reuters his community recently learned of plans for the biggest gas fuel-cell power plant of its kind in the U.S., to serve an Amazon Web Services data center. He said officials haven't provided details about safety for a nearby elementary school. "My biggest concern is health and security. I don't want my constituents to be lab rats if something goes wrong," Rothenberg said.
"For my family and my daycare families, their safety is my number one priority, and I feel like right now I can't guarantee that," Kidd said. "It's all out of our hands."
Why this matters for government and IT professionals
For government officials, the surge in off-grid energy projects forces a reckoning between the economic pull of AI data centers and fundamental duties of public health and transparency. Understanding the technology and its infrastructure demands is critical to crafting policies that protect communities without stifling innovation. Resources like the AI Learning Path for Policy Makers can help officials build that expertise.
For developers and IT professionals building AI systems, the explosive energy demand highlights a need to factor sustainability into design decisions. The outcomes of these regulatory battles may shape future site selection, operational costs, and public perception of AI workloads.
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