Until recently, federal clean electricity rules would have prevented the AESO's gas-powered plan from going ahead. Those rules limited emissions from power plants connected to the grid and restricted how the province could rely on natural gas generation.

But because the Carney government paused Canada's clean electricity rules for Alberta as part of their November MOU, said Noel, the province can force developers to burn gas to power data centres.

Smith has been clear that the province's data centre push is a way to sell more Alberta gas. In a recent YouTube video, she painted data centres as "digital refineries" that will allow the province to generate more wealth from its natural gas reserves.

"A data centre refines that gas, in stages, into the most valuable commodity of our time. Gas becomes electricity. Electricity becomes computing power. And computing power becomes intelligence," she said. Her words echo the province's natural gas producers, who are pushing for data centre development to create a market for gas they're otherwise struggling to sell.