WASHINGTON — A coalition of nearly 200 environmental, health, and community groups filed comments late Friday urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw its proposal to eliminate the minimum public participation requirements for air pollution permits often used for data centers, power plant expansions, and other industrial facilities. EPA’s proposal would eradicate minimum federal public participation requirements for state-issued Clean Air Act minor New Source Review permits, which typically apply to new sources like data centers, asphalt plants, landfills, waste incinerators including plastic pyrolysis facilities, and emissions-increasing expansions of existing large industrial sources, including new units at power plants. EPA’s existing regulations, which have been in effect for more than 50 years, require states to provide public notice of draft permits and at least a 30-day public comment period. If EPA finalizes its proposal, it will be entirely up to state and local air agencies to decide whether to provide public notice and an opportunity to comment on Clean Air Act minor new source review permits or to instead issue permits behind closed doors. At EPA’s virtual hearing on July 22, communities nationwide expressed concerns that the proposal would reduce or eliminate opportunities to learn about and weigh in before construction begins on new and modified sources that will increase air pollution. The written comments filed today identify nearly 50 examples in which public input strengthened air permits, leading state and local air agencies to require additional air pollution controls and stronger monitoring to ensure compliance with emission limits. “Donald Trump and his administration have already rolled back handfuls of guardrails that kept us safe from toxic air pollution; now they want to help data center developers evade more health standards and do so secretly,” said Sierra Club Managing Attorney Dori Jaffe. “We demand that the EPA rescind this attempt to further cut the public out of decisions made in their own backyards. We deserve to have a say about developments in our community that would impact our air quality and the health of our families. “Data centers and other industrial sources should not be able to get their air pollution permits in secret,” said Keri Powell, Senior Attorney and SELC’s Air Program Leader. “Communities deserve a chance to weigh in before the government allows a new or expanded industrial facility to increase harmful pollution in the air they breathe.” “Some of the largest polluting sources in the Midwest, including data centers, steel plants, and fossil fuel-fired power plants, are being allowed to emit harmful air pollutants under so-called ‘minor source’ permits,” said Jessica O’Donnell, Senior Attorney at the Environmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC). “The public deserves to weigh in on such permits to ensure these industrial sources are given appropriate emissions limits and stick to them.” “Opposition to data centers is growing in communities across the country, yet EPA’s response is to cut the public out of air pollution permitting and allow permits to be approved behind closed doors,” said Sheena Patel, attorney for NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). “The result will be some of the dirtiest power sources rushed into neighborhoods without giving communities any opportunity to weigh in.” “It’s beyond cruel for Trump’s EPA to silence front-line communities who bear the brunt of unhealthy air,” said Brandon Jones-Cobb, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The agency has already turned its back on science, cut enforcement against industrial polluters and eliminated life-saving air pollution measures. Now it wants to shut the public out of decisions to build or expand facilities that expose communities to dangerous air pollution, including data centers. This EPA is so out of touch with Americans and only focuses on making polluters happy.” “Data centers and other polluters shouldn’t be able to move into our neighborhoods on the sly and keep communities in the dark about their air pollution impacts,” said Surbhi Sarang, Senior Attorney, Clean Power at Environmental Defense Fund. “Eliminating the opportunity for the public to weigh in on air permits means regulators will have less information to work from when making important decisions that affect everyone’s health. The Trump EPA’s proposal would make it easier for industrial facilities to get the green light to pollute and put the health of more Americans at risk.” “This rule would prevent fenceline communities from finding out about new sources and changes at facilities in their neighborhoods, including chemical facilities, power plants, and data centers,” said Kentucky Resources Council Senior Attorney Byron Gary. “Worse than that, though, it could deprive the agencies making decisions about these sources the necessary lived experience data of those communities. Without that information, it is impossible for permitting agencies to evaluate the full, cumulative impact of these facilities.” “This is a disgraceful attempt to allow secret approvals of pollution from new data centers and other sources,” said David Baron, senior attorney at Earthjustice. “The Trump administration’s proposal would unlawfully let data centers and other industrial polluters shift pollution costs onto communities without residents having a say. There must be an open permitting process that discloses information to affected communities and gives people a meaningful opportunity to be heard.” “The people who would be injured by polluting projects proposed near their communities must have a federally protected right to be notified and be heard by the government agencies they rely on for protection,” said Annie Fox, an attorney with Clean Air Council. “These so-called minor projects include petrochemical, scrap metal processing, and other facilities that out them and their children at risk of cancer, respiratory, and other illnesses from pollution, as well as from fires and explosions that we’ve repeatedly seen at some of these ‘minor’ sources. We call on the EPA to uplift the voices of American communities rather than allowing them to be silenced.” “Every community deserves the same protections under our federal laws, and every community should be able to participate robustly in governmental decisions that can pollute our air,” said Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics. “Rolling back this rule pulls a dark cloud, filled with soot and toxic chemicals, over communities’ right to know about what kind of polluting facilities are planned in their community.”
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