Massive AI Data Center and Power Plant proposed for the Ahern Ranch near the Glass Mountains, about 19 miles from both Alpine and Marathon. Brewster County hasn’t agreed to anything yet.
at the Pecos County sister project — bigger than any U.S. power plant, even Grand Coulee (7.1 GW)
than the largest U.S. gas plant (3.8 GW) — and more than Los Angeles uses on its hottest day (6.5 GW)
of greenhouse gases a year allowed there — nearly as much as the entire city of Houston (34M)
a year of air pollutants allowed there (soot, ammonia, CO, VOCs) — particles that can drift hundreds of miles
7.65 GW, 33M and 12,000+ are permit limits for Pacifico’s GW Ranch in Pecos County, the project Pacifico named as its model. Brewster’s plant hasn’t been sized yet.
Pacifico’s model is its Pecos County plant: 35 gas turbines on 3,000–4,000 acres — up to half the ~7,800-acre Ahern Ranch, about 19 miles from both Alpine and Marathon, permitted to be bigger than any U.S. power plant. It’s planned “off-grid,” with its own power plant, to sidestep state regulation and power-line building timelines. But “off-grid” isn’t a promise: a likely later hookup could bring giant 765-kV power lines.
In south Brewster County, Judge Henington and 140+ local businesses have fought a border wall through Big Bend National Park, whose visitors bring $56.8 million a year to the area. Now a record-scale gas plant could rise in the north end, on Highway 67 — the scenic road into Alpine traveled by many of the park’s 500,000+ yearly visitors. A lasting haze over the Glass Mountains, Marathon and Alpine: the same scars, at our northern gateway.
This is a desert in drought, and every ranch and town here runs on wells. Yet there’s no water source and no usage figure — just a plan to test the Hovey Trough, which Pacifico’s team called “not a studied aquifer.”
More on waterAbilene’s AI data center brought nearly 6,000 construction workers a day. Here, that’s as many people as live in all of Alpine, through a 5–7 year buildout — then just 100–200 permanent jobs.
More on the costsOur lighting rules exempt temporary construction lighting, and this buildout runs 5–7 years. The plant would sit about 43 miles from McDonald Observatory, with a turbine-and-chiller hum that never stops.
More on skies and noiseThe roads, pipelines and power lines would never leave. If it’s built anywhere, build it in the Permian Basin, north of I-10, which has the gas, pipelines, oilfield water, housing and workers — and is farther from Big Bend National Park.
Why north of I-10Clean air? Dark skies? Room to make your own way? Preserve what you love.
Don’t let land developers, Big Power and AI companies decide our future.
Contact the Brewster County Commissioners Court and County Judge Greg Henington. Ask them to reject this project, agree to sign no secrecy agreements (NDAs), and update the county’s lighting ordinance to cover construction projects.
Show up when it returns to the Commissioners Court agenda, and bring your neighbors. Pacifico’s CEO reportedly credited “lack of local opposition” in Pecos County. Let’s not give them that here.
Call your state lawmakers: Rep. Eddie Morales, Sen. César Blanco or Sen. Roland Gutierrez. Gov. Abbott has frozen state permits for data centers, but only until a state audit ends, expected in December. Use this pause.
Brewster County has time to stop this — speak up now.
See how to take actionWe’ll let you know when this returns to the Commissioners Court agenda, when permits are filed, and how you can help.
Takes 30 seconds. Opens our sign-up form (Google Forms) in a new tab. We’ll only use your email for updates about this project.
Home to Big Bend National Park. Home to the Last Frontier. Home to Us.
Not the nation’s largest off-grid data center. Not its biggest, most polluting power plant.