What repeats, once you read the permits
Eight case files. The same three moves show up in Louisiana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Texas and New Mexico. Each one is a disclosure gap a reporter can print.
Pattern one · the major-source line
Title V kicks in at 100 tons a year of NOx. Permits are written to 96, 99, 99.21 — and they get there by excluding the hours the diesel actually runs in an emergency. A field for “distance to the major-source line” is cheap and newsworthy.
Pattern two · “backup”
A turbine called backup that is allowed to run every hour of the year is not backup. Abilene’s simple-cycle units were modified to 8,760 hours. xAI ran more units than it had permitted. The Ledger counts on-site combustion; this is why.
Pattern three · the meter
Jupiter claimed 168,000 gallons a year and pumped more than 103 million in four months. Closed-loop fill at Abilene was reported as 1, 8 or 10 million gallons depending on who was asked. A closed loop stops the building drinking. It does not stop the well, and it does not stop the power plant.
This is not Climate Power’s Data Center Air Pollution Tracker. That product scores eight companies on grid carbon intensity. These are per-site criteria pollutants and per-site water, with the permit numbers next to the model.
Gigawatt Ledger · compiled from air and water permits, court records and company statements. Method.