Trump is Using Full Force of Administration to Ram Through Data Centers and Create New Epidemic of Pollution 

NEW FACT SHEET: The Trump administration’s decision to prevent communities from voicing opposition to data centers is just the latest in a series of actions that give big tech a blank check to pump dangerous toxins into the air

Washington, DC – From the Department of Justice (DOJ) to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Trump is using every agency at his disposal to help billion-dollar tech and fossil fuel companies build coal and gas-powered data centers, despite extreme public opposition. A new Climate Power fact sheet reveals the scale of this administration’s corruption: The list includes gutting pollution protections, stripping communities of their ability to have a say, and intervening on behalf of xAI, one of the most-polluting hyperscalers in the country. 

Despite their desperate efforts to prove otherwise, these actions make it clear that Trump will always prioritize ultra-wealthy corporations over the American people. Meanwhile, as Trump silences the concerns of the American people, today, he’s rolling out the red carpet for the people he actually cares about: the Big Oil executives he’s helped rake in massive profits for.

Trump has removed pollution protections and public health guardrails in favor of data center growth. You can read Climate Power’s full fact sheet here. 

TRUMP DOES NOT WANT THE PUBLIC TO HAVE A SAY IN DATA CENTER POLLUTION

• The Trump administration is systematically dismantling decades of law and precedent that gave local communities a say in decisions to build new sources of pollution in their backyards. 
• In January 2026, Trump’s EPA created a new category of “temporary combustion turbine” that does not have to assess how pollution will impact the local community for the first two years of operation. Elon Musk’s xAI, by far the most-polluting hyperscaler, has used this new rule to allow essentially unlimited air pollution in local communities.
• In June 2026, Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) and EPA intervened on behalf of an xAI plant to stop a lawsuit by the NAACP over the plant’s lack of permits or pollution controls. This extraordinary intervention argued that local communities have no standing to object to pollution, invoking sweeping claims about AI and national security. With this action, Trump’s DOJ is trying to dismantle a core statutory right in the Clean Air Act that allows local communities to sue polluters when the government does not take enforcement action itself. 

TRUMP IS KEEPING COSTLY, DIRTY FOSSIL FUEL PLANTS ONLINE IN THE NAME OF DATA CENTERS

• Trump’s Department of Energy (DOE) used emergency orders to force seven primarily coal-fired power plants to remain online past their retirement to meet rising energy demand from data centers. Trump’s EPA rollbacks of public health regulations on coal and gas will lead to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths through 2050. 

TRUMP IS FAST TRACKING NEW GAS PLANTS WITH DANGEROUS AIR POLLUTION

• As of July 2026, 74 gas-fired power plants were planned across the country to provide “behind-the-meter” power to data centers. Some of these projects are unprecedented in size. For instance, a 7.65 gigawatt gas power plant proposed in Texas could become the largest power plant in the United States. 
• Pollution from these facilities could scale quickly and, without protections in place, could substantially increase the pollution that causes heart and lung diseases, smog, acid rain, and climate change. 
• Trump’s EPA has already granted these power plants a two-year “temporary” pollution pass, placing them above the laws that every other industrial polluter has complied with for years.