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The Environmental Protection Agency proposed cutting the American public out of air pollution permits for “minor sources,” which includes the tractor trailer-sized diesel generators used by data centers. EPA’s proposal removes any requirement for transparency or public participation for “minor source” pollution sources, including most data centers.
As data centers rapidly expand across the country, many rely on fleets of diesel and gas generators while obtaining multiple “minor source” permits that can obscure the cumulative pollution impacts of clustered data centers. Instead of strengthening oversight, the administration is proposing to weaken one of the few tools communities have to understand and challenge new pollution sources in their neighborhoods.
A Sierra Club investigation found 10,500 diesel generators at data centers condensed in Northern Virginia, totaling nearly 27 gigawatts, enough to power 7 million homes. Amazon alone holds enough “minor source” air permits to allow its backup generators to emit 4,200 tons of NOx in Northern Virginia, about the same as a mid-sized coal plant right in the heart of the seventh largest metro area in the country.
