The Trump administration is weakening environmental regulations in the name of speeding up AI data center construction, raising health risks for Americans, a cadre of former EPA officials said in a briefing and new report.
The Environmental Protection Network, an independent organization of EPA alumni, released a report identifying 30 different federal actions since January 2025 that exacerbate health risks stemming from data center pollution. Of those, 17 specifically mention AI or target data centers.
You would think that an industry buildout of this magnitude, billed as a revolution, would mean more vigilance from EPA, said Lynn Goldman, a pediatrician and former EPA assistant administrator. Instead, EPA is doing just the opposite, thinking first about industrys needs and weakening or reconsidering limits on toxic chemicals and harmful pollutants.
The report includes executive actions and proposals meant to curtail renewable energy projects while softening pollution regulations and exempting existing power plants and factories from certain standards. Trump released an AI Action Plan in July 2025 recommending streamlining or reducing regulations under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Superfund law to expedite permitting for data center projects.
The administration has essentially laid the policy groundwork for new gas projects to power energy-hungry data centers, ranging from turbines installed on-site to power plants built specifically to serve tech companies. Meanwhile, demand for advanced chips needed for generative AI is reviving the production of forever chemicals that build up in the environment and human bodies.
You do not need to be near a data center to be affected, because the pollution does not just come from the data centers themselves, Goldman says.
The report cites a study from UC Riverside, Caltech, and the Rochester Institute of Technology that 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. The toll could be even larger after factoring in the policy changes outlined in the report.
A more polluting AI buildout is not inevitable. It depends on the choices government makes now, said Marc Boom, EPNs senior director of public affairs. The organization is urging the president to adopt a Data Center Health Protection Pledge to signal that the administration is taking the environmental threat seriously.
Responding to the report, EPA spokesperson Cora Mandy said the agency has returned regulations to the best reading of the Clean Air Act after years of overreach by previous administrations while prioritizing making America the AI capital of the world.
