Trump suspends environmental reviews to speed AI data center construction

Environmental advocates warned Wednesday that AI data centers are 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 concerns highlight a growing tension between AI infrastructure demands and environmental protection, with communities in states like Virginia, Tennessee, and Indiana already experiencing higher utility rates and air quality issues from the power-hungry facilities.

What you should know: Data centers require massive amounts of electricity, forcing utilities to build new power plants and transmission lines whose costs are shared by all customers.

• In Virginia, which has more data centers than any other state, utility rates are rising for everyone as PJM Interconnection, the grid operator serving Virginia and a dozen other states, had to pay power generators 22% more at Tuesday’s annual capacity auction due partly to growing data center demand.
• “We know that 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, director of land use for the Piedmont Environmental Council.

The big picture: The Trump administration’s “America’s AI Action Plan” calls for building vast AI infrastructure to win a global race for AI dominance, explicitly rejecting “radical climate dogma and bureaucratic red tape.”

• The 28-page report advocates a “Build, Baby, Build!” approach to data center construction.
• Three executive orders released Wednesday are designed to encourage AI and data center development by suspending environmental reviews.

Environmental concerns: Data centers are creating significant air and water pollution risks in local communities.

• “Data centers are extremely power hungry and can put local communities’ air quality at risk,” said Amanda Garcia, a senior attorney in Tennessee for the Southern Environmental Law Center.
• Elon Musk’s xAI built a massive data center in Memphis with its own gas-turbine power generators, which Garcia said “essentially set up a power plant without any permits or input from the affected communities.”

Massachusetts angle: The state has largely missed the data center boom due to high land and electricity costs, but recent policy changes aim to attract facilities.

• Last year’s economic development legislation exempted data centers from sales and use taxes.
• A potential $3 billion data center could be built near Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport, about 15 miles west of Springfield.

What they’re saying: Senator Edward Markey, who organized the environmental advocates’ event, acknowledged the need for AI infrastructure while emphasizing environmental protection.

• “AI has the potential to offer real public benefits … but those benefits cannot come at the unchecked expense of our environment and our health,” Markey said.
• “Our environment doesn’t have to be a sacrificial lamb on the altar of innovation. We can have green growth.”

Industry impact: The tech industry has already undertaken a massive building boom, spending hundreds of billions of dollars on new data centers to support growing AI applications, with big tech companies previously supporting solar and wind projects to power their facilities.