Gallego, Colleagues Press EPA, AI Companies on Rollback of Public Input Rules for Data Center Air Permits

WASHINGTON — Today, Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) joined Senators Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) in sending two letters opposing the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed elimination of the 30-day mandatory public notice period that allows communities to provide input on proposed facilities, like data centers, that may affect the air they breathe. The first letter, addressed to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, calls on him to withdraw the proposed rule; the second letter, to nine major data center companies — Anthropic, AWS, Fermi, Google, Joule, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, and xAI — urges them to maintain current public participation standards regardless of the rule’s outcome. “We agree that permitting should be efficient, predictable, and capable of supporting the infrastructure our country needs. But faster permitting should not come at the expense of transparency or communities’ ability to shape the decisions that affect them,” the senators wrote to EPA Administrator Zeldin. “Data center companies like yours also have a responsibility not to use weaker requirements to limit public participation or communities’ ability to meaningfully shape decisions that affect them,” continued the senators to the data center companies . “America can build the infrastructure needed to compete and innovate while keeping communities informed and involved in the decisions that affect them.” In addition to Senators Gallego, Kelly, and Whitehouse, the letter to the EPA was signed by Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Edward Markey (D-MA), and Adam Schiff (D-CA). In addition to Senators Gallego, Kelly and Whitehouse, the letter to the data companies was signed by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and Adam Schiff (D-CA). Read the full letter to the EPA HERE. Read the full letter to the AI companies HERE .