The EPA wants to make data centre pollution disclosure optional
The US Environmental Protection Agency has proposed making public disclosure of air pollution from minor sources voluntary rather than mandatory, a change that would cover the diesel generators clustered around data centres.
It follows the same direction as the exemptions the administration has already granted, having excused data centres and rockets from parts of environmental law earlier this year.
Under the Clean Air Act, facilities classified as minor polluters currently have to disclose their emissions to the public through state agencies, and the proposal would leave that decision to state and local officials instead.
How data centres come to be minor sources at all is the part worth understanding. Operators frequently split permits across individual generators or turbines, so that no single permitted unit crosses the threshold that would trigger stricter federal review, even where hundreds of them sit on one campus.
Northern Virginia shows what that looks like at...
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