U.S. Data Centers Set to Outpace Most Nations in Natural Gas Demand by 2035

Data centers across the United States are on track to burn more natural gas than nearly every country on Earth within a decade, according to a new BloombergNEF outlook covered by Investing.com. The report projects gas demand for data-center electricity will climb by 15 billion cubic feet per day between now and 2035, more than double BloombergNEF's own December estimate of 6.9 billion cubic feet per day. That volume would surpass the current gas consumption of every nation except China, Russia, Iran, and the U.S. itself.

Natural gas is expected to supply 69% of the power needed by new grid-connected data centers, largely because it's cheap, abundant domestically, and flexible enough to ramp up and down for facilities that run around the clock. By 2035, the power sector will become the second-largest driver of U.S. gas demand overall, behind only new LNG export terminals on the Gulf Coast. Power-sector gas use is projected to hit 54 billion cubic feet per day, an 18 billion cubic feet per day jump from 2025.

Henry Eaton, BloombergNEF's lead analyst on the report, acknowledged real uncertainty in the numbers, noting the forecast carries "fairly large" error bars "both to the upside and the downside."

This buildout carries real stakes for Black and Brown communities. Gas-fired power plants and the pipeline infrastructure feeding them are disproportionately sited near lower-income communities of color, a pattern well-documented in environmental justice research on the U.S. gas system. As utilities scramble to meet data-center demand, new or expanded gas plants are likely to be built fastest in areas with the least political capital to resist them, often the same neighborhoods already burdened by industrial pollution, higher asthma rates, and legacy environmental racism.

There's also an economic dimension: data centers' 24/7 power draw can push up regional electricity rates, and studies have shown rate increases tied to data-center growth often hit lower-income ratepayers hardest, since energy costs consume a larger share of their income. Without deliberate siting policies, emissions controls, and rate protections, the AI-driven gas boom risks deepening existing disparities in air quality, health outcomes, and utility affordability for communities that already bear a disproportionate share of America's energy infrastructure burden.

Link: Bloomberg