Trump suspends environmental reviews to accelerate AI data center construction

Environmental advocates warned Wednesday that the AI data center boom is driving up electricity costs for consumers and increasing pollution, as the Trump administration unveiled executive orders to accelerate data center construction by suspending environmental reviews. The warnings came during an event organized by Senator Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, as the White House released its “America’s AI Action Plan,” emphasizing the need to “Build, Baby, Build!” AI infrastructure without “radical climate dogma.”

What they’re saying: Environmental attorneys highlighted how data centers are imposing costs on local communities without proper oversight.

• “Data centers are extremely power hungry and can put local communities’ air quality at risk,” said Amanda Garcia, a senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center in Tennessee.
• Garcia pointed to Elon Musk’s xAI Memphis facility, which “essentially set up a power plant without any permits or input from the affected communities.”
• Senator Markey acknowledged AI’s potential benefits but emphasized: “Those benefits cannot come at the unchecked expense of our environment and our health.”

The big picture: The Trump administration’s 28-page AI Action Plan positions data center expansion as critical for winning global AI dominance, directly countering environmental concerns with aggressive deregulation.

• The plan states: “We need to build and maintain vast AI infrastructure and the energy to power it. To do that, we will continue to reject radical climate dogma and bureaucratic red tape.”
• Three executive orders released Wednesday are designed to encourage AI and data center development by suspending environmental reviews.

Why this matters: Data centers are creating a hidden tax on everyday electricity customers while benefiting the world’s wealthiest tech companies.

• In Virginia, which hosts more data centers than any other state, all utility customers share the cost of new power stations and transmission lines needed for data centers.
• “The customers, the utility customers that are not data centers, are going to be subsidizing the electrical infrastructure for the richest companies in the world,” said Julie Bolthouse of the Piedmont Environmental Council.
• Grid operator PJM Interconnection, which manages electricity distribution across 13 states including Virginia, had to pay power generators 22% more at Tuesday’s annual capacity auction, partly due to growing data center demand.

Massachusetts angle: The state has largely missed the data center boom due to high land and electricity costs but is now trying to attract facilities.

• Last year’s economic development legislation exempted data centers from sales and use taxes.
• A potential $3 billion data center near Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport, about 15 miles west of Springfield, is under discussion and could become the largest in Massachusetts.

The tension: The administration’s push conflicts with tech companies’ previous environmental commitments.

• Markey criticized Trump for cutting subsidies for solar and wind power that big tech companies had been supporting to power their data centers.
• “Our environment doesn’t have to be a sacrificial lamb on the altar of innovation,” Markey said. “We can have green growth.”