Ohio’s cautionary tale on data centers is a lesson for us all

By Cathy Cowan Becker

When I moved to the thriving suburb of Hilliard, Ohio, three years ago, I never imagined I would be on the front lines of fossil fuel expansion. But that’s what happened, thanks to a new law allowing data centers to fast-track approval for “behind-the-meter” energy generation.

That law makes Ohio a case study on how not to power a data center.

Starting in 2022, Hilliard welcomed three Amazon data center campuses. The projects were seen as major investments bringing in good-paying jobs and tax revenue for schools. But in 2025, the Ohio legislature passed House Bill 15, which allows data centers to get approval for “major utility facilities” on land they own to generate energy behind the meter — meaning the electricity is not put onto the grid but used solely to power the data center.

The process takes just 60 days, with no public notice, no public hearing and no consultation with local officials. Approval is automatic, meaning no formal vote. And because the generation facility must go on land owned by the data center, the only viable option is gas.

Soon after H.B. 15 went into effect, and before anyone knew what was happening, the largest fracked-gas fuel cell project in North America was quietly approved, and an air permit issued for one of Hilliard’s Amazon data centers. The gas fuel cell will emit 1.45 million pounds of carbon dioxide every day — as if 66,000 gas cars were parked onsite and running 24/7 — next to hundreds of homes, a park and an elementary school.

Hilliard is just one example of behind-the-meter gas generation for data centers in Ohio. So far, 11 combustion gas turbine plants totaling 5,200 MW have been proposed or approved to power data centers across the state.

Others include:

• The 350 MW Apollo gas plant got fast-track approval to power a Meta data center in Wood County with no public hearing. A shell company, Liames LLC, signed non-disclosure agreements with elected officials, hiding the project for months.
• EdgeConneX has proposed an 800 MW gas project to power a data center complex in the tiny village of Ashville. The village council signed an agreement to support the gas plant, located next to children’s soccer fields and on top of the village aquifer, after the company offered $102 million for schools and critical wastewater upgrades.
• Four gas plants totaling 1150 MW — Socrates North, Socrates South, Socrates the Younger and NEO Power Generation Facility — have been approved and proposed to power Meta’s Prometheus complex in New Albany, the world’s first gigawatt data center. Additional power will come from deals for three offsite nuclear projects.
• Vantage seeks to build a 1,350 MW gas plant with 40 turbines just a mile from the resort town of Millersport. Diagrams show particulate pollution would cover the village, Buckeye Lake State Park, and Cranberry Bog Nature Preserve, the only floating sphagnum moss island in the world. The project got a $76.1 million state tax break.

Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick unveiled plans for a 9.2 gigawatt — that’s 9200 megawatts — gas plant to power a giant data center complex in Pike County on the former site of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which enriched uranium for atomic weapons during the Cold War. Financed by $33 billion from Japan’s SoftBank, it would be the largest gas project in the world, spewing more than 53 million tons of greenhouse gas pollution each year. 

Together all these gas projects will create more greenhouse pollution than many entire countries.

So many gas plants will surely carry a great cost for people and the environment. A study by Harvard biostatistician Michael Cork found that a 96 MW gas plant with eight turbines to power a Vantage data center in Loudon County, Va., could result in $53 million to $99 million in health damages, in addition to 3.4 to 6.5 additional deaths per year due to asthma, hospitalizations and lost productivity. Most gas plants now being built are much larger.

The prospect of so many new gas plants has fueled a rush to frack Ohio’s public lands, with almost 22,000 acres of the state’s parks and wildlife areas approved for extraction.

This enormous demand for energy is now fueling a citizen backlash against data centers in Ohio. More than 50 communities have passed data center moratoriums, and a statewide volunteer group is collecting signatures for a ballot initiative that would ban data centers over 25 MW. 

The Buckeye State ranks fifth for data centers, with 240 statewide. That puts Ohio on the front lines of fossil fuel expansion — but it doesn’t have to be this way. If your county or state is not yet building fracked gas to power data centers, you can still reach out to legislators and demand renewable energy and guardrails for data centers.

With the right laws and incentives, data centers can transform from an extractive burden to an engine that builds communities and the clean energy economy. There is a wrong way to power data centers, but you can push your state to do it right.

Cathy Cowan Becker is Responsible Finance Campaign Director at Green America and board president of Save Ohio Parks. She lives in Hilliard, Ohio.

This opinion piece was originally published in The Hill on July 27, 2026.

Photo: Meta 1 GW Prometheus data center in New Albany. Note the tent-like structures on the left, powered by the 200 MW Socrates South gas plant consisting of a series of simple cycle gas turbines set out on the ground.