This week, New Jersey ordered the operator of one of the East Coast’s largest planned data centers to pay a $1.1 million fine for secretly installing and operating gas generators in violation of the state’s Air Pollution Control Act.
DataOne got hit with the fine after an investigation by The Guardian and Floodlight News in August shared thermal drone footage showing that 45 of the 62 gas generators were operating. None of the generators had permits needed for generators with 37-kilowatt capacity or higher, despite running at 1,982-kw capacities more than 50 times higher than the state limit.
States track gas generators like DataOne uses because they emit “carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and other combustion-related pollutants,” officials from New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) noted.
In a statement to The New York Times, the company seemed unfazed by the fine.
Eventually, the polluting gas generators will supposedly be phased out, as the data center is “transitioning to low-emission, quiet fuel cells,” the spokesperson noted.
Leone-Vespa agreed that million-dollar fines won’t end billionaires’ data center pollution.
In New Jersey, there are more than 80 data centers planned or under construction, but DataOne is the first data center operator to rely on gas generators to create its own off-grid supply.
According to Floodlight, DataOne tried to get permits for about 30 gas generators, but after New Jersey’s DEP “found multiple deficiencies,” DataOne withdrew its application in May.
After the project was announced in March 2025, construction progressed quickly before the public began to understand how big the data center would be, South Jersey Climate News reported.