The Trump administration put out its vision for AI infrastructure in the US last week. It’s a dream for the fossil fuel and chemical industries — and a nightmare for wind and solar energy and the environment.
An “AI Action Plan” and flurry of executive orders Donald Trump signed last week read like manifestos on making AI less “woke” and less regulated. They’re packed with head-spinning proposals to erode bedrock environmental protections in the US, on top of incentives for companies to build out new data centers, power plants, pipelines, and computer chip factories as fast as they can.
It’s a deregulation spree and a massive handout to fossil fuels, all in the name of AI.
What the AI plan “is really about” is “using unprecedented emergency powers to grant massive new exemptions for data centers and specifically fossil fuel infrastructure,” says Tyson Slocum, energy program director at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. “I think they have a genuine interest in accommodating Big Tech’s priorities. But it’s an opportunity to marry their priorities for Big Oil.”
“It’s an opportunity to marry their priorities for Big Oil.”
Data centers are notoriously energy-hungry and have already led to a surge of new gas projects meant to satiate rising demand. But many tech companies have sustainability commitments they’ve pledged to meet using renewable energy, and as wind and solar farms have generally grown cheaper and easier to build than fossil fuel power plants, they’ve become the fastest-growing sources of new electricity in the US. Now, Trump wants to turn that on its head.
He signed an executive order on July 23rd meant to “accelerat[e] federal permitting of data center infrastructure.” It tells the Secretary of Commerce to “launch an initiative to provide financial support” for data centers and related infrastructure projects. That could include loans, grants, and tax incentives for energy infrastructure — but not for solar and wind power. The executive order describes “covered components” as “natural gas turbines, coal power equipment, nuclear power equipment, geothermal power equipment” and any other electricity sources considered “dispatchable.” To be considered dispatchable, operators have to be able to ramp electricity generation up and down at will, so this excludes intermittent renewables like solar and wind power that naturally fluctuate with the weather and time of day.
Trump’s AI planning document similarly says the administration will prioritize deploying dispatchable power sources and that “we will continue to reject radical climate dogma.” Already, Trump has dealt killer blows to solar and wind projects by hiking up tariffs and cutting Biden-era tax credits for renewables. The AI executive order goes even further to entrench reliance on fossil fuels and make it harder for new data centers to run on solar and wind energy.
“Right now, you do not qualify for expedited treatment if your data center proposal has wind and solar. It is excluded from favorable treatment,” Slocum says. “So what’s the statement for the market? Don’t rely on wind and solar.”
That’s not just environmentally unfriendly, it’s inefficient — considering the current backlog for gas turbines and because fossil fuel plants are generally slower and more expensive to build than onshore wind and solar farms. “This is not an energy abundance agenda. This is an energy idiot agenda,” Slocum adds.
The Trump administration wants to speed things up by rewriting bedrock environmental laws. Trump, ever the disgruntled real estate mogul, has railed against environmental reviews he says take too long and cost too much. He has already worked to roll back dozens of environmental regulations since stepping into office. Now, the executive order directs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to modify rules under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Superfund law, and Toxic Substances Control Act to expedite permitting for data center projects.
“That is horrifying … These [laws] protect our public health. They protect our children. They protect the air we breathe and the water we drink,” says Judith Barish, coalition director of CHIPS Communities United, a national coalition that includes labor and environmental groups.
“This is an energy idiot agenda.”
The coalition has come together to fight for protections for workers in the chip industry and nearby communities. Semiconductor manufacturing has a long history of leaching harmful chemicals and exposing employees to reproductive health toxins. Santa Clara, California, home of Silicon Valley, has more toxic Superfund sites than any other county in the US as a result. The coalition wants to keep history from repeating itself as the US tries to revive domestic chip manufacturing and dominate the AI market.
AI requires more powerful chips, and Trump’s executive order fast-tracking federal permitting for data center projects includes semiconductors and “semiconductor materials.” Barish says “a chip factory is a chemical factory” because of all the industrial solvents and other chemicals semiconductor manufacturers use. That includes “forever chemicals,” for which the Trump administration has started to loosen regulations on how much is allowed in drinking water. Companies including 3M and Dupont have faced a landslide of lawsuits over forever chemicals linked to cancer, reproductive risks, liver damage, and other health issues, and have subsequently made pledges to phase out or phase down the chemicals. Now, manufacturers are jumping on the opportunity to produce more forever chemicals to feed the AI craze.
Ironically, we could see data centers and related infrastructure popping up on polluted Superfund sites that Silicon Valley has already left in its tracks. Trump’s executive order directs the EPA to identify polluted Superfund and Brownfield sites that could be reused for new data center projects (and tells other agencies to scour military sites and federal lands for suitable locations).
Office buildings are already situated on or adjacent to old Superfund sites where cleanup is ongoing; Google workers were exposed to toxic vapors rising from a Superfund site below their office back in 2013. Since it can take decades to fully remediate a site, oversight is key. “For Superfund sites in particular, these are the most contaminated sites in the country, and it is important that there are comprehensive reviews both for the people who are going to be working on the sites, as well as for the people who surround them,” says Jennifer Liss Ohayon, a research scientist at the Silent Spring Institute who has studied the remediation of Superfund sites.
But Trump wants to erode oversight for new data center projects that receive federal support — adding “categorical exclusions” to typical National Environmental Policy Act assessments. Environmental reviews that do take place could also be limited by the sheer lack of people power at federal agencies the Trump administration has hacked to pieces, including the EPA.
“America needs new data centers, new semiconductor and chip manufacturing facilities, new power plants and transmission lines,” Trump said before signing his AI executive orders last week. “Under my leadership we’re going to get that job done and it’s going to be done with certainty and with environmental protection and all of the things we have to do to get it done properly.” Good luck.
