Trump’s EPA wants to let data centers hide their air pollution

特朗普政府的环保署（EPA）拟允许数据中心隐瞒空气污染情况

The Trump administration wants to scrap another federal air pollution rule. Advocates say it’ll help data center developers avoid public scrutiny. 特朗普政府计划废除另一项联邦空气污染法规。倡导人士表示，此举将帮助数据中心开发商规避公众监督。

Just as new data centers face growing backlash from neighboring communities, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is about to make it harder for people to weigh in on any pollution those centers create. 正值新建数据中心面临周边社区日益强烈的抵制之际，美国国家环境保护局（EPA）即将出台新规，使民众更难对这些中心产生的污染发表意见。

The EPA plans to toss out a federal rule requiring public notice and an opportunity to comment when certain industrial sites apply for an air permit. Advocates warn that the move would allow data center developers and other industries to break ground without giving nearby residents a say, or even a warning that construction is planned. EPA计划废除一项联邦法规，该法规要求某些工业场所在申请空气排放许可证时，必须进行公示并提供公众评论机会。倡导人士警告称，此举将允许数据中心开发商及其他行业在不征求周边居民意见、甚至不预先告知建设规划的情况下直接动工。

“You can see why that would be so interesting to an administration that wants to rush through the construction of data centers,” says Keri Powell, senior attorney and air program leader at the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC). “What EPA would be allowing would be all of those facilities to go through and just not have to deal with the public, issue the permits in secret behind closed doors. Nobody knows what’s happening until the bulldozers are out there.” “你可以看出，为什么这对于一个急于推进数据中心建设的政府来说如此具有吸引力，”南方环境法律中心（SELC）高级律师兼空气项目负责人凯里·鲍威尔（Keri Powell）表示。“EPA实际上是在允许所有这些设施绕过公众监督，在闭门会议中秘密发放许可证。直到推土机开进工地，人们才会知道发生了什么。”

The EPA’s proposed changes apply to a permitting process that’s been in place since the 1970s called New Source Review that applies to a wide range of facilities, from landfills and paper mills to power plant expansions. More recently with the rise of generative AI, these permits have also become a flashpoint for opposition to new data centers, as well as to power plants built to provide electricity for all those servers. EPA此次提议修改的许可程序名为“新源审查”（New Source Review），自20世纪70年代起实施，涵盖了从垃圾填埋场、造纸厂到发电厂扩建等广泛的设施。随着生成式AI的兴起，这些许可证已成为反对新建数据中心以及为服务器供电的发电厂的焦点。

In July, the EPA announced that it would eliminate the federal public participation requirement for a large set of polluters and place that burden on states. The plan would leave it up to state and local air agencies to decide whether or not to notify the public about certain new sources of pollution — leaving advocates concerned that many of these agencies would forgo the process altogether. Air pollution is often regulated at the federal level because it can waft across the country, affecting residents in one state even if the source is in another. 今年7月，EPA宣布将取消针对大量污染源的联邦公众参与要求，并将这一责任转嫁给各州。该计划将由州和地方空气管理机构决定是否就某些新的污染源通知公众，这引发了倡导人士的担忧，他们担心许多机构可能会完全放弃这一程序。空气污染通常由联邦层面监管，因为它会跨区域传播，即使污染源位于另一个州，也会影响到其他地区的居民。

“The state and local authorities closest to the issues and the public should be making the decisions on the permitting process as much as possible, not Washington,” EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement at the time. “We are cutting unnecessary and burdensome red tape.” “最了解问题和公众诉求的州及地方当局应尽可能多地对许可程序做出决定，而不是华盛顿，”EPA局长李·泽尔丁（Lee Zeldin）当时在一份声明中表示。“我们正在削减不必要且繁琐的官僚程序。”

The change applies to so-called “minor” sources of pollution, which the EPA says in its announcement “have relatively low emissions and limited environmental impact.” Powell’s group contends that the “minor” label is a misnomer and that the permitting process routinely covers projects that can have significant consequences for their neighbors. 这一变更适用于所谓的“小型”污染源，EPA在公告中称这些污染源“排放量相对较低，环境影响有限”。鲍威尔所在的组织则认为，“小型”这一标签名不副实，因为该许可程序通常涵盖的项目可能会对周边邻居产生重大影响。

Colossus 1, xAI’s massive data center in Tennessee that the company billed as the “most powerful AI training system yet,” applied for a minor source permit in 2025. That led to a hearing and elicited thousands of comments to a public notice posted by the local health department, Inside Climate News reported last year. The SELC and NAACP threatened to sue xAI for installing unpermitted gas turbines at the site the same year. 据《气候内幕》（Inside Climate News）去年报道，xAI在田纳西州的大型数据中心“Colossus 1”（该公司称其为“迄今最强大的AI训练系统”）曾在2025年申请过小型污染源许可证。这引发了一场听证会，并促使当地卫生部门收到了数千条针对公示的评论。同年，SELC和全国有色人种协进会（NAACP）曾威胁要起诉xAI，因为该公司在现场安装了未经许可的燃气轮机。

SELC was one of nearly 200 health and environmental groups that filed comments last Friday asking the EPA to withdraw its proposal on New Source Review. They argue that by mandating public comment, residents can provide agencies with valuable insight on the repercussions of building a new data center or other industrial facility. SELC是上周五提交评论、要求EPA撤回“新源审查”提案的近200个健康和环保组织之一。他们认为，通过强制要求公众评论，居民可以为监管机构提供关于新建数据中心或其他工业设施所带来影响的宝贵见解。

“[The EPA’s proposal] could deprive the agencies making decisions about these [pollution] sources the necessary lived experience data of those communities. Without that information, it is impossible for permitting agencies to evaluate the full, cumulative impact of these facilities,” Kentucky Resources Council Senior Attorney Byron Gary said in a press release. “（EPA的提案）可能会剥夺那些对这些（污染）源做出决策的机构获取社区必要生活经验数据的机会。没有这些信息，许可机构就不可能评估这些设施的全部累积影响，”肯塔基资源委员会高级律师拜伦·加里（Byron Gary）在一份新闻稿中表示。

The public comment period for the EPA’s proposal ended last week, and EPA spokesperson Carolyn Holran says in an email to The Verge that they’re still reviewing all the comments submitted — more than 4,900 that need to be addressed before the agency can finalize its rule. EPA该提案的公众评论期已于上周结束。EPA发言人卡罗琳·霍兰（Carolyn Holran）在给《The Verge》的一封电子邮件中表示，他们仍在审查所有提交的评论——在机构最终确定规则之前，需要处理超过4900条意见。