Trump’s EPA wants to let data centers hide their air pollution
Just as new data centers face growing backlash from neighboring communities, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is about to make it harder for people to weigh in on any pollution those centers create. The EPA plans to toss out a federal rule requiring public notice and an opportunity to comment when certain industrial sites apply for an air permit.
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Key Facts
- Fact 1: Nobody knows what’s happening until the bulldozers are out there.” “Nobody knows what’s happening until the bulldozers are out there.” The EPA’s proposed changes apply to a permitting process that’s been in place since the 1970s called New Source Review that applies to a wide range of facilities, from landfills and paper mills to power plant expansions.
- Fact 2: Colossus 1, xAI’s massive data center in Tennessee that the company billed as the “most powerful AI training system yet,” applied for a minor source permit in 2025.
- Fact 3: SELC was one of nearly 200 health and environmental groups that filed comments last Friday asking the EPA to withdraw its proposal on New Source Review.
- Fact 4: The public comment period for the EPA’s proposal ended last week, and EPA spokesperson Carolyn Holran says in an email to The Verge that they’re still reviewing all the comments submitted — more than 4,900 that need to be addressed before the agency can finalize its rule.
Just as new data centers face growing backlash from neighboring communities, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is about to make it harder for people to weigh in on any pollution those centers create. The EPA plans to toss out a federal rule requiring public notice and an opportunity to comment when certain industrial sites apply for an air permit.
Advocates warn that the move would allow data center developers and other industries to break ground without giving nearby residents a say, or even a warning that construction is planned. “You can see why that would be so interesting to an administration that wants to rush through the construction of data centers,” says Keri Powell, senior attorney and air program leader at the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC). “What EPA would be allowing would be all of those facilities to go through and just not have to deal with the public, issue the permits in secret behind closed doors.
(Original synthesis pending human/AI review — generated by the stub provider by selecting real sentences from the source material, not by writing new analysis or commentary.)
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