Trump is giving data centers a pass to pollute — SkimNews
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- Former EPA officials with the Environmental Protection Network released a report this week identifying 30 federal actions since January 2025 that exacerbate health risks from data center pollution; 17 of those specifically mention AI or target data centers.
- Trump's "AI Action Plan", released in July 2025, recommends streamlining or reducing regulations under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Superfund law to expedite permitting for data center projects and chip factories.
- EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin proclaimed his goal of making America "the AI capital of the world" through deregulation, and under his leadership the agency has rolled back dozens of rules on top of cutting staff and funding.
- A UC Riverside, Caltech, and Rochester Institute of Technology study cited in the report found that air pollution associated with AI could lead to up to 1,300 premature deaths and more than $20 billion in public health costs by 2028.
- Public Citizen energy program director Tyson Slocum said the AI plan amounts to "using unprecedented emergency powers to grant massive new exemptions for data centers and specifically fossil fuel infrastructure."
- Hundreds of current EPA employees sent a public letter to Zeldin last year warning the agency "will not protect communities from hazardous chemicals and unsafe drinking water" but will "increase risks to public health and safety."
- EPA spokesperson Cora Mandy defended the rollbacks, saying EPA "returned regulations to the best reading [of] the Clean Air Act after years of overreach by previous administrations."
Why it matters: The 30 deregulatory actions are explicitly tied to a single industrial priority — AI infrastructure — with a cited study projecting 1,300 premature deaths by 2028 as a direct consequence. Former officials are asking for a "Data Center Health Protection Pledge," but EPA is defending the approach as correcting "overreach," leaving communities that don't live near data centers exposed to pollution from new gas plants and revived forever-chemical production.
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