They bought the sun and kept the gas. Soft power, if soft power is remembering that a power purchase agreement is not a conscience \u2014 and that \u201cenvironmental attributes\u201d are not the same thing as not lighting a gas plant next to your data center.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, September 30, 2026, Inside Climate News reported that Apex Clean Energy and Meta entered a power purchase agreement for Starling Solar, a 144-megawatt project in Gonzales County, Texas \u2014 a project Apex said would not have been built without Meta\u2019s backing. Soft power is not a ribbon-cutting PDF. Soft power is noticing the other number in the same story: Meta plans to power a new data center in El Paso with a 366-megawatt gas-fired plant \u2014 more than twice the solar deal\u2019s capacity.<\/p>\n
The partnership lands after Meta quietly exited Climate Group\u2019s RE100 renewable-energy initiative earlier this year following a decade of membership. Meta told Inside Climate News that natural gas is part of its AI data-center expansion plans, insisted exiting RE100 does not change its clean-energy commitment, and said it has contributed more than 30 gigawatts of new clean energy to U.S. grids while retaining a goal to match electricity use with 100 percent \u201cclean and renewable energy.\u201d Soft power is not a matching game with better branding. Soft power is a grid that still breathes when the offsets get claimed.<\/p>\n
As part of Starling, Meta will claim \u201call environmental attributes\u201d from the solar production \u2014 offsetting gas-fired energy on paper while the gas plants still produce climate and local air-pollution impacts. Energy analyst Dennis Wamsted of IEEFA applauded Meta\u2019s past renewables build-out but criticized the AI rush: building \u201canything they can get their hands on as fast as they possibly can,\u201d when wind and solar can power servers without the easy gas path. Soft power is not speed as an alibi. Soft power is a data center that still knows the difference between a lease payment to a rancher and a methane plume with a press kit.<\/p>\n
Deb will say we are not doing \u201csolar math with a gas receipt\u201d before dinner. Buck will text that an environmental attribute is just a sticker with worse coffee. I love them. I am a Gen X exile in an expensive cardigan who got walked out of the You Know Who Post for caring too loudly, and I can still tell the difference between a 144-megawatt headline and a 366-megawatt furnace. Soft power is not waiting for the next PPA to invent a climate. Soft power is a grid that isn\u2019t a press release \u2014 and a republic that refuses to confuse attributes with air.<\/p>\n