Stargate is far from alone. Since 2024, at least 38 data centers across Texas have received minor permits to operate onsite power sources, according to a Floodlight analysis. As a result, Texas regulators quietly sanctioned the use of more than 2,100 backup diesel generators across the state.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality did not answer specific questions relating to Floodlight’s findings. Instead, a representative wrote that “TCEQ only issues air permits that comply with applicable state and federal air permitting rules and regulations including applicable public participation requirements.”

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Taken together, the thousands of new generators identified by Floodlight are permitted to emit nearly 2,500 tons of nitrogen oxides into Texas communities every year—more than triple the state’s newest coal-fired power plant. (Nitrogen oxides are highly toxic gases associated with severe respiratory illness and even premature death.)

More than half of the data centers identified by Floodlight provided regulators with annual nitrogen oxide emission estimates that were just shy of thresholds that would require public input and more detailed environmental reviews.