Meta has left RE100, a corporate initiative supporting a transition to renewable electricity, after a decade of membership, as it expands its use of natural gas to power AI data centres. The departure matters because Meta still says it will match its data-centre electricity use with clean and renewable energy, despite funding gas-fired generation that produces significant emissions and air pollution.

Over the past year, Meta has backed at least 12 gas plants, including 10 linked to its Hyperion data centre in Louisiana with combined capacity of 7.5 gigawatts—more than South Dakota’s electricity demand. The company can maintain renewable claims through annual purchases of environmental certificates, which offset consumption elsewhere, though this differs from stricter hourly matching pursued by firms such as Microsoft.