EPA webpage maps out path for data-center developers around air rules
The Environmental Protection Agency is following through on its commitment to tear down regulatory barriers in the name of artificial intelligence, unveiling a new webpage Thursday aimed at guiding industry on Clean Air Act rules to more quickly build data centers.
The Clean Air Act Resource for Data Centers page provides infrastructure developers with a host of information about the 1970 federal law. “Looking exclusively through the lens of the CAA, EPA’s specific new resources provide state and private sector partners with regulatory information, guidance and technical tools that can assist with modeling, air quality permitting, and regulatory interpretations relevant for data centers and AI facility development,” the agency’s press office said in response to a FedScoop request for comment Friday.
The page also shares information on how to “legally avoid requirements” of a Clean Air Act provision known as Limiting the Potential to Emit. The press office said the agency “is committed to following its statutory obligations under the Clean Air Act and helping our state partners do the same.”
The regulatory maneuvering is part of a broader Trump administration push under EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to cut red tape and speed up permitting.
“The global race to harness the power of artificial intelligence and build data centers is underway,” Zeldin said in a press release Thursday. “EPA is diligently working to eliminate burdensome regulations and ensure data centers and related facilities can be built in the U.S. as we Power the Great American Comeback. Developers, local communities and Tribes will now have easy access to the tools they need to build big, beautiful data centers and AI facilities.”
Zeldin’s statement and the webpage itself referenced President Donald Trump’s AI Action Plan and his January AI executive order as reasons for launching the resource, which also details how the agency has previously handled permitting and previews for data-center developers “what permitting requirements they may face.”
The energy agenda for Trump’s AI Action Plan leaned heavily on pared-down clean air and water regulations as a means to expedite permitting. The document specifically called for reduced regulations under the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, as well as any “related laws.”
Proponents of the plan argued that the “environmental tradeoffs” for accelerating AI and data center construction were worth it, a point that Zeldin also attempted to make in a July op-ed for Fox News. The former Republican congressman from New York wrote that many of the Clean Air Act requirements for building data centers traced back to the 1990s, “when technology was practically prehistoric compared to modern advancements.”
“These rules require companies to install pollution control equipment when they build new facilities or make a change that increases emissions significantly,” Zeldin continued. “The digital revolution has ushered in new needs and new industries which demand new permitting rules that help, not hamper development.”
The new webpage claims that by speeding up the ability to build data centers “and the necessary backup generation,” the cost of new facilities will go down along with electricity rates. “This ultimately will reduce the cost-of-living for Americans who rely on data centers and AI for their daily lives — from ensuring food at the grocery store to photos on their phones,” the website states.
Whether those assertions pan out remains to be seen, but there’s been a bubbling public rejection of the nationwide data-center buildout amid spiking energy demand and skyrocketing utility costs. On Capitol Hill, bipartisan groups of lawmakers have introduced legislation tiptoeing around the issues, including one bill on liquid cooling technologies to potentially address high facility costs and another to study the impact data centers are having on rural America.
Nevertheless, the EPA’s new website signals that the administration intends to move full steam ahead with its plans to streamline permitting and quicken data-center construction. Aaron Szabo, the EPA’s assistant administrator for air, said in the press release that the webpage demonstrates the agency’s commitment to “following the law and helping Americans do the same.”
“Good rulemaking and policies must be coupled with sound public knowledge regarding regulations,” Szabo said. “As EPA works to enact policy that helps make America the AI capital of the world, our new webpage provides an essential resource to those looking to understand the current regulations,” adding that his office “is pleased to be able to respond directly to the request from developers, local communities and Tribes who have been asking for these resources since day one.”
The website’s launch was first reported by Politico’s E&E News.
