The natural gas ‘bridge’ becomes a highway

For a long time, natural gas was considered a bridge fuel. Even the gas industry called it a bridge, working hand in hand with environmental groups to push coal off the grid.  Then came the pushback over methane leaks, air quality in homes, and residential gas connections. The industry got so rattled it started hiring influencers to win back public opinion. Well, all that has changed radically. Who needs influencers when you have the tech companies who run the platforms? This month, Meta announced it would fund 10 natural gas power plants for a single AI campus in Louisiana totaling 7.5 gigawatts. Microsoft, Google, and Crusoe are all investing in gigawatts of new gas capacity. Utilities and independent power producers have tens of gigawatts more in their development pipelines.  Suddenly, this once-called bridge fuel is suddenly looking like a four-lane highway. This week, we dig into what's behind all these gas deals, what they mean for the power mix and emissions targets, and what an off-ramp could look like. We’ll look at the internal logic of the hyperscalers, the possible impacts on rates, and how the turbine crunch may impact development. Credits: Co-hosted by Stephen Lacey, Jigar Shah, and Caroline Golin. Produced and edited by Stephen Lacey, Sean Marquand, and Anne Bailey. Want to watch this episode? Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Open Circuit is brought to you by FlexGen, a leader in integrated battery energy storage solutions and energy management software. FlexGen helps owners and operators gain greater visibility and control across complex energy systems to maximize performance. Learn more at www.flexgen.com. Join Latitude Media on April 13-14, in San Francisco for Transition-AI 2026, a two-day, in-person conference on the digital and energy infrastructure buildout needed to support AI load growth. Our podcast listeners get a 10% discount on this year’s conference using the code PODS10. ⁠Register today here⁠!