Action Alerts

AI data centers are trying to avoid accountability

What's At Stake

Artificial Intelligence’s (AI) immense computing power demands are fueling an unprecedented boom of new data center construction, energy consumption, and pollution.

As AI data centers drive up electricity bills and pollution, public opposition is growing stronger. The Trump administration’s response? Weakening environmental regulations and limiting your right to have a say in what’s being built in your neighborhood.

The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is continuing use the AI boom as justification to gut pollution controls and the Clean Air Act. Tell the EPA you oppose its proposed rule that would allow AI data centers’ backup generators to avoid clean air rules and keep communities in the dark.

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Modern AI data centers use an enormous amount of electricity — as much as a city in one location. Because local grids often can’t keep up, new power plants are being built for these data centers along with backup diesel generators, which are designed to run in case of emergency. These generators are extremely polluting and increasingly used in non-emergency situations, as tech companies look to grow at all costs.

Rather than addressing the pollution these generators create, the Trump administration doubled down by:

  • ordering the AI data centers to run their dirty generators more frequently
  • letting certain power plants not install any pollution controls for acid rain

Now, its proposing a rule that would allow companies to seek and receive “minor source” air permits without gathering public input.

Since “minor source” permits are less stringent, tech companies often divide large projects into smaller ones to qualify — bypassing normal Clean Air Act requirements. This loophole has fueled the recent explosion of AI data centers and health harming pollution. The administration’s new rule will supercharge it by keeping the public in the dark.

Limiting the transparency of the buildout of these dirty generators will have real consequences. The large-scale generators at AI data centers are usually powered by diesel and are polluting the air we breathe with dangerous chemicals. This type of permit applies to all kinds of facilities, from chemical plants to sterilizers to hazardous waste combustors, exacerbating the damage that this rule will cause.

Communities deserve to have a say on matters of their health, yet the Trump administration is trying to take that away. Join us in telling the EPA to respect our right to keep our families and communities safe from air pollution.

Two large buildings under construction in morning light, with a power plant in the background with steam coming out.
Data centers being built in Leesburg, Virginia, next to the Potomac Energy Center, a gas power plant. Loudoun County, Virginia has one of the highest concentrations of data centers in the country. (Gerville / Getty Images)

10 Days Remain

Delivery to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Zeldin

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When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.

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