The Pulse
EPA alumni flag 30 actions that could raise AI data-center health risks
A report from the Environmental Protection Network identifies 30 federal actions it says could increase pollution-related health risks as AI data centers expand.
AI.info Team ·
EPA alumni challenge the administration’s data-center strategy
A group of more than 800 former Environmental Protection Agency employees says the federal government is weakening pollution controls while accelerating the construction of AI data centers. In a report dated September 2026, the Environmental Protection Network identifies at least 30 federal actions since January 2025 that it says could increase health risks, reduce public scrutiny or shift pollution costs onto families and communities.
The report, The Hidden Health Costs of AI Data Centers, does not claim that the 30 actions have produced a measured, combined health burden. EPN says no public study has yet calculated that effect. Its argument is that the direction of policy increases the chance that rising electricity demand will be met with coal plants, gas generation, diesel generators and turbines under weaker oversight.
The administration presents the expansion as an energy and national-security priority. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has made turning the United States into the “AI capital of the world” a central part of his agency’s economic program, while the White House says data-center companies should provide or purchase the electricity and infrastructure they require through its Ratepayer Protection Pledge.
“EPA and other federal agencies are doing the opposite”
Dr. Lynn Goldman, a pediatrician and former EPA Assistant Administrator, said the size of the buildout should lead to stronger monitoring and enforcement rather than weaker protections.
“You would think a buildout of this magnitude would mean more vigilance from EPA: stronger safeguards to make sure companies control their pollution, more science to understand what this scale will bring, and more monitoring,” said Dr. Lynn Goldman, a pediatrician and former EPA Assistant Administrator. “Instead, EPA and other federal agencies are doing the opposite.”
EPN’s report groups the 30 actions into three areas. Seventeen explicitly mention AI or data centers in the action itself or in an agency statement explaining it. The remaining 13 affect the way data centers are powered, the pollution standards that apply to power facilities, the approval process for new projects or the federal government’s ability to enforce environmental laws.
Examples described in the report include efforts to keep fossil-fueled power plants operating longer, changes affecting soot, mercury and air-toxics safeguards, revised coal-wastewater requirements, faster permitting procedures and proposals that could reduce public disclosure or participation. EPN also points to reduced scientific and enforcement capacity at EPA and to a Justice Department effort seeking broader authority to end Clean Air Act citizen suits.
The health bill reaches beyond the data-center fence line
Data centers can emit pollution directly through backup diesel generators and dedicated gas turbines. The larger source of potential harm, according to the report, is the power system that supplies the facilities. Coal- and gas-fired plants may operate more often or remain open longer to meet new demand, sending nitrogen oxides, soot, volatile organic compounds and other pollutants into communities that may be many miles from a data-center campus.
The report cites a 2026 study by researchers from the University of California, Riverside, the California Institute of Technology and the Rochester Institute of Technology. Across the study’s 2028 scenarios, data-center-related air pollution could produce between $11.7 billion and $20.9 billion in annual public-health costs. Under the high-growth scenario, the researchers estimate roughly 600,000 asthma symptom cases and 1,300 premature deaths.
More than 90 percent of the modeled health effects came from power plants supplying electricity rather than from on-site generators. In the high-growth scenario, electricity generation accounted for about $19.3 billion of the $20.9 billion in annual health costs and 1,165 of 1,262 estimated premature deaths.
EPN stresses that the study did not model the federal policy changes in its report. The organization says the estimates therefore cannot be used to calculate the additional harm caused by the 30 actions. If weaker safeguards, delayed coal-plant retirements, new gas capacity or expanded generator use increase emissions beyond the study’s assumptions, EPN says, the health burden would also rise.
Coal retirements slow as new gas plants enter the pipeline
The report links data-center demand to changes in the U.S. power system but does not assign every development to AI facilities alone. Plans to retire or switch nearly 10 gigawatts of coal capacity by the end of 2025 were delayed as electricity demand increased. EPN says data centers were a major driver alongside other industrial loads and broader electrification.
The Environmental Integrity Project identified at least 74 proposed gas plants dedicated to data centers, including 71 new facilities and three expansions. If built and operated at permitted levels, those plants would provide 143 gigawatts of generating capacity and emit an estimated 662 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, along with more than 159,000 tons of other air pollution.
EPN also cites a separate Global Energy Monitor analysis that identified 189 gigawatts of U.S. gas-fired capacity in development primarily to serve data centers. The report cautions that the two estimates overlap and should not be added together.
Children may face particular risks, the report says, because their lungs, brains and other organs are still developing. At least 188 schools are within three miles of proposed gas plants dedicated to data centers, according to EPN’s analysis. The organization says proximity alone does not establish exposure or injury, but argues that it supports project-specific emissions estimates, monitoring and public review.
EPA says speed and clean air can coexist
EPA’s public statements frame its data-center work differently. The agency has said a roundtable with the Data Center Coalition would address clean-air requirements, grid reliability and community concerns while helping make the United States the AI capital of the world. EPA has also said it can provide regulatory flexibility while protecting clean air, land and water.
The White House’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge addresses electricity costs rather than pollution. The pledge asks AI companies and hyperscalers to build, bring or buy the power they need, pay for new delivery infrastructure and cover the cost of power brought online for their facilities even when it is not used. The administration says the arrangement will keep ordinary households from paying for data-center expansion.
EPN argues that paying for electricity and grid upgrades does not resolve health risks if the power comes from polluting sources. Its proposed Data Center Health Protection Pledge would require federal agencies to restore and enforce pollution safeguards, properly permit and monitor data centers and on-site power, preserve public review and rebuild the scientific and enforcement capacity needed to measure emissions.
The immediate dispute is therefore not over whether data centers need more electricity. Both sides accept that demand is rising. The disagreement is over whether faster approvals and looser pollution rules are compatible with protecting communities that host the facilities, supply their power or live downwind from the plants that keep them operating.