Trump is giving data centers a pass to pollute

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President Donald Trump is weakening environmental regulations in the name of speeding up the construction of AI data centers, raising health risks for Americans, a cadre of former EPA officials said this week in a briefing and new report. They are urging — perhaps futilely — the president to adopt a “Data Center Health Protection Pledge” to signal that the administration is taking the environmental threat seriously.

At the start of his term, Trump’s EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, proclaimed his goal of making Americathe AI capital of the world” through deregulation. Since then, Zeldin and the White House have rolled back dozens of rules on top of cutting staff and funding at the US EPA.

As a result of the Trump administration’s deregulation spree and attackson renewable energy, the wave of new AI data centers is increasingly powered by dirty energy that can impact...

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