Tell the Ohio Power Siting Board: Don't give Meta another polluting gas plant!
Socrates South is a 200 MW gas combustion plant now operational to power the Meta Prometheus data center in New Albany, Ohio, the world's first 1 gigawatt (1000 MW) data center.
This gas "plant" is really 15 simple cycle turbines - the least efficient type -- and 15 reciprocating internal combustion engines -- like a gas car engine only the size of a house.
Socrates South is only the first major gas plant Meta has planned for its Prometheus data center. Two more called Socrates North (200 MW) and Socrates the Younger (250 MW) have also been approved.
On Tuesday, October 6, at 5 p.m., the Ohio Power Siting Board will hold a public hearing on a fourth gas plant for the Meta Prometheus data center called NEO Power Generation Facility -- the largest yet at 500 MW.
If approved, the NEO gas plant would include 27 simple cycle gas turbines and four reciprocating internal combustion engines. This equipment could annually produce:
- 3,471,813 tons of greenhouse gas pollution
- 197.1 tons of fine particulate matter
- 243.3 tons of Nitrogen Oxides (NOx)
- 172.73 tons of Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs)
- 189.1 tons of Sulfur Dioxide (SO2)
- 245.2 tons of Carbon Monoxide (CO)
- 40,200 pounds of Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs)
The gas will come from fracking in Appalachian Ohio, the most extracted part of our state, including Salt Fork State Park, Egypt Valley Wildlife Area, and other public lands.
The other Meta gas plants sailed through the approval process with very little notice. Let's make sure that doesn't happen again. Here is what you can do:
Submit a public comment
- Fill out this form to get a sample comment -- then add to it to say why this is important to you.
- Maybe you or a family member have breathing problems that the air pollution from this gas plant would make worse -- or maybe you want our parks and wildlife areas to be protected from fracking.
- Or send your comment directly to the Ohio Power Siting Board. Put Case #26-0627-EL-BGN in the subject line. Sign it with your name, city, state, and zip. Send your comment to contactOPSB@puco.ohio.gov
Testify at the public hearing
- Tuesday, October 6, at 5 p.m., at New Albany-Plain Local Schools Annex Building, 79 North High Street, New Albany, OH 43054
- Every public comment helps, but testifying in person has even more impact because it is sworn testimony and they can see you are a real person.
- You can say the same thing in public testimony as you say in your written comment. This is your chance to tell OPSB directly to stop building fracked gas plants to power data centers.
- Some of us will be meeting at the New Albany Public Library, Meeting Room 2, 200 Market St., starting at 3:30 p.m. to practice our testimony and ask questions.
Need more information?
- Check out our Action Page
- Check out our testimony workshop video
- Check out our comprehensive testimony toolkit