Forty Miles Apart, Google’s Clean Power Project and xAI’s Unpermitted Gas Plant Raise Stewardship Questions

The striking detail is not simply that one company built a large solar and battery project and another built a gas plant. It is that those two choices sit 40 miles apart. Google's largest clean power project and xAI's unpermitted gas plant are not abstract categories; they are physical decisions placed near the same communities, roads, and horizon.

That contrast raises a stewardship question without settling every factual one. The report does not say why the gas plant is unpermitted, whether it poses a danger, or what motives guided either company. It also does not prove that one project is virtuous and the other negligent. Still, the nearness makes the issue concrete. Energy is not only a market or a technology story. It is a story about what we build, what we allow, and who lives near the results.

From a faith perspective, stewardship begins with that kind of honesty. It asks not only what we intend, but what our choices place next to other people's homes and daily lives. Responsible power does not assume convenience is the same as care. It invites us to examine our own use of resources, influence, and technology: whether we consider neighbors and long-term maintenance, or settle for immediate advantage.