Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (VA-04) and U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), last month launched a bicameral investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) guidance exempting data center power plants from the Acid Rain Program (ARP).
By EPA’s own admission, the decision to issue new guidance came at the behest of data center companies. And according to the EPA press release issuing the new guidance, the agency took this action to “further President Trump’s agenda promoting data centers.”
“EPA’s new ARP guidance is a handout to the richest and most powerful companies in the world. And this handout comes at the expense of Americans’ health and the safety of our ecosystems and communities that were, prior to the inception of the ARP, regularly drenched in dangerous acidic rainfall,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.
The ARP regulates the emission of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) from power plants. SO2 and NOx are both harmful to human health, damaging the respiratory system and worsening heart disease. They are also linked to adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes, kidney damage, autoimmune disorders, and cancer.
The pollutants are also the primary causes of acid rain. Prior to the ARP, acid rain poisoned rivers, lakes, and streams; damaged forests; killed and sickened aquatic animals; and corroded buildings, monuments, and statues.
“EPA explicitly bills its new guidance as a means to facilitate data center development. In so doing, EPA misapprehends its own mission, which is to ‘protect human health and the environment,’ as stated in black and white on the agency’s own website,” continued the lawmakers.
“Bizarrely, under EPA’s new guidance, massive new gas-fired power plants large enough to power cities would be exempt from NOx and SO2 caps under the ARP only as long as they do not serve the public electricity grid and instead exclusively power a privately-owned data center. This is a perverse outcome, and it is contrary to Congress’s design for the Clean Air Act, which creates specific and comprehensive regulatory requirements for significant pollution sources like these,” added the lawmakers.
The lawmakers, together with Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), requested answers from EPA by October 7th about the agency’s decision-making process while crafting this new guidance, as well as any information regarding the agency’s communications with data center companies. Senators Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and 24 Members of the House of Representatives also signed the letter. EPA has not yet responded to the lawmakers’ letter.
The letter to EPA Administrator Zeldin is available here.