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EPA plans to scrap public comment on data center pollution permits

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EPA plans to scrap public comment on data center pollution permits

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to scrap a federal requirement that states notify the public and allow public comment before approving air-pollution permits for industrial facilities, a category that includes data centers and the power plants built to supply them. The move follows a separate EPA proposal from the previous month that would let developers start building data centers before their permits are approved. In a statement, the agency said the change would 'provide the state and local agencies most familiar with local issues the discretion to determine whether, when, and for how long to provide opportunities for public participation,' and said more broadly that the proposals would 'responsibly speed up permitting, supporting American economic development and energy dominance.'

The clearest example in the report is in South Carolina, where environmental activist Paul Black is organizing against a data center complex the size of 1,200 football fields in a community that is 40% Black. The project landed there only after developers tried, and failed, to build a similar campus in a predominantly white county in Georgia. Black called the federal proposal 'a betrayal of everything that this country should stand for, purports to stand for. It runs counter to the will of the people.'

Local secrecy compounds the federal change, the report says: local governments have routinely signed nondisclosure agreements with tech companies over data center projects and have in some cases overruled legal orders to keep information from becoming public. In Louisiana, public service commissioner Davante Lewis was the only commission member to vote for releasing electricity-use data tied to construction of what the report calls the country's largest data center, in a rural part of the state. 'What I am saying is that if we, as the community, the people who are responsible, can't understand this, can't have questions answered, can't have information, then how can I look somebody in the eye and tell them this is good for you, trust me?' Lewis said.

Nearly 200 advocacy groups and more than a dozen states, led by both Democrats and Republicans, have voiced opposition to the federal changes, and the report cites polling that found seven in 10 Americans oppose building AI data centers in or near their communities. South Carolina has already moved on its own: the state passed a ruling last month allowing power plants built for data centers to go up without review or approval from its state regulatory commission.

The report ties the buildout to direct health and cost impacts. Data centers can drive demand for gas-fired power plants and turbines, which emit smog-forming nitrogen oxides, fine particulate matter and, in some cases, hazardous air pollutants such as formaldehyde linked to a range of cancers. Brandon Jones-Cobb, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, called it 'beyond cruel for Trump's EPA to silence front-line communities who bear the brunt of unhealthy air.' Black households, who the report says face a higher average energy burden than other groups, have seen rising utility bills and subsequent power shutoffs tied to data center growth, with new utility infrastructure costs often passed on to ratepayers. Near where Meta is building what the report calls the nation's largest data center, a local mayor said home prices had doubled and families in trailer-home parks were evicted to house higher-earning construction workers, with the area's median home and rental prices rising 80% in a single year.

Lee Zeldin, who runs the EPA, said last year that making the United States 'the artificial intelligence capital of the world' was now the agency's top priority. The EPA, a 56-year-old agency established in 1970 to protect the environment and public health, is expected to finalize the public-comment proposal within the next year. Black summed up the stakes: 'The level of unequalness with these data centers cannot be understated. The government is rewriting the rules and the richest corporations in the world are supporting them so that one of our only ways to make our voices heard is erased.'

Key facts

  • The EPA plans to scrap the federal rule requiring states to notify the public and accept comment before approving industrial air-pollution permits, which cover data centers and the power plants built to supply them.
  • The EPA separately proposed, the previous month, letting developers start building data centers before their permits are approved.
  • Nearly 200 advocacy groups and more than a dozen states, spanning both parties, have opposed the changes, and polling cited in the report finds seven in 10 Americans oppose siting AI data centers near their communities.
  • In South Carolina, activist Paul Black is fighting a data center complex the size of 1,200 football fields in a 40% Black community, after a similar project was abandoned in a predominantly white Georgia county.
  • Near Meta's data center construction, median home and rental prices in the surrounding area rose 80% in a year, and trailer-park families were evicted to house construction workers.

Why it matters

Two EPA proposals working together would remove one of the last formal checks the public has before a data center, or the power plant built to feed it, starts operating: the federal notice-and-comment requirement on air-pollution permits, and a separate rule letting construction begin before permits are even approved. The report ties fast-growing data center construction to the rural South, in places with large Black populations, and finds that removing the federal comment requirement would leave the timing and existence of public input entirely up to individual states. That lands against polling in the report showing seven in 10 Americans already oppose siting AI data centers near their communities.

Who it affects

Rural communities near new or planned data centers and the power plants that supply them, including a South Carolina community that is 40% Black where a complex the size of 1,200 football fields is being contested, after a similar project was abandoned in a predominantly white Georgia county. Black households more broadly are affected too: the report says they face a higher average energy burden and have already seen rising bills and power shutoffs tied to data center growth. So are residents near Meta's data center construction, where a local mayor said home prices doubled and trailer-park families were evicted to house construction workers. And more than a dozen states and nearly 200 advocacy groups, spanning both parties, have already voiced opposition to the federal changes.

How to use it

There is no product here, but the report points to where leverage still exists. South Carolina already passed its own ruling letting data center power plants skip state review, so other states could move in either direction, toward less oversight or, under pressure from opposition, toward more. Louisiana's Davante Lewis showed that a single dissenting regulator can force a vote on releasing information, such as electricity-use data, even without a federal mandate behind it. And because the EPA's own proposal is not yet final, expected to be finalized within the next year, its rulemaking comment process, distinct from the permit-by-permit comment rights it would eliminate, remains open to opposition until then.

How solid is it

The reporting rests on named, on-the-record sources: activist Paul Black, Louisiana regulator Davante Lewis, attorney Brandon Jones-Cobb, and the EPA's own statement and quoted remarks from Lee Zeldin. The scale figures, nearly 200 advocacy groups and more than a dozen states in opposition, come from the report but without naming which groups or states took part. Several events are dated only loosely, as 'last month' or 'last year' rather than by calendar date, and the report does not cite the specific statute or rulemaking process the EPA would use to drop the comment requirement. It also does not name the mayor or the state behind the Meta-area housing account, or quantify how far bills rose or how many households lost power.

Risks and caveats

The core risk is procedural: if finalized, the rule would let individual states decide whether, when, and for how long to allow public participation on air-pollution permits, rather than guaranteeing it federally, while a separate proposal would let construction start before any permit is approved at all. The report is told largely through affected residents and advocates rather than as a neutral read of the rule text, and the EPA's own stated aim, to 'responsibly speed up permitting, supporting American economic development and energy dominance,' points to a real trade-off between faster buildout and public input that the report does not itself referee. None of it has taken effect yet: the EPA is still expected to finalize the proposal, within the next year per the report, so this is a plan, not yet a rule in place.

“It is a betrayal of everything that this country should stand for, purports to stand for. It runs counter to the will of the people.”

— Paul Black, environmental activist opposing a South Carolina data center project