Epa Chief Says He Won't Regulate Data Centers

The Trump administration is not going to set nationwide environmental requirements or recommendations for the rapidly growing data center industry, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said Wednesday.

While there are technologies and practices that reduce air pollution and water usage, states and communities know what works best for them, Zeldin said at the POLITICO Energy Summit in Washington.

“Ten times out of 10, I'm not going to sit inside of an agency building in Washington, D.C. and that we say that we know that local community in Georgia or Florida or Arizona or elsewhere, better than everyone there locally,” Zeldin said.

Just 37 percent of Americans would support a data center being built in their area, according to a POLITICO poll earlier this year. There are myriad reasons cited by opponents, but water usage and air pollution are common complaints.

Zeldin on Wednesday cited closed-loop data center designs that don’t have to regularly tap into local water supplies, as well as President Donald Trump’s ratepayer protection pledge, the voluntary agreement with major tech and artificial intelligence companies to pay for grid upgrades necessary for data center loads.

“While we hear these stories of the worst-case data center that is most controversial and has the most amount of opposition, we might hear less about the data center that is following all the best practices,” Zeldin said. “It is important, as more builds are getting done, that they are following those best practices, not the worst practices.”

But data centers can’t be painted with a broad brush, he added.

Each facility is different, as are the surrounding communities, local environmental conditions, electricity needs and water usage.

“You can't just across the board act as if every data center project is equal, like they're all following the same exact model in how they power their project in various ways, or how they cool their data center, so it really depends on how the deal gets done,” Zeldin said.

Ultimately, outside of permitting decisions, EPA’s role on data centers is typically only advisory.

“EPA is not the party that is negotiating and or mediating or refereeing that deal that gets struck between the parties, but we are happy to engage as much as we possibly can to share that technical expertise and the best practices from what we're seeing elsewhere around the country,” Zeldin said.

Zeldin has courted the AI industry throughout his tenure at EPA, including the controversial use of unpermitted gas turbines at xAI's complexin Tennessee.

EPA has also cited the nation’s AI boom when rolling back pollution rules for coal plants, some of which have been ordered to remain open by the administration to power data centers. The agency also eased guidance for diesel generators, a favored source of power for data centers, so they can be used for more than just emergency backup power.

Ariel Wittenberg contributed to this report.