The rush to power data centers is weakening the Clean Air Act

The EPA issued guidance last month declaring that the Clean Air Act's Acid Rain Program does not apply to power plants built solely to serve a single data center rather than the public grid, removing one of the few requirements for continuous, mandatory emissions monitoring. The program, in place since 1990, is credited with sharply cutting sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide from power generation precisely because it forced plants to report what they emit.

The change arrives as demand for 'islanded' plants explodes: OpenAI has floated a 9.2-gigawatt gas plant in Ohio, Amazon a 7.65-gigawatt plant in Texas, and smaller projects are already seeking permits in Georgia. Governors in Pennsylvania and Texas have separately pushed the popular idea that data centers should generate their own power rather than burden ratepayers — a fix that, per this guidance, comes with weaker pollution tracking attached.

The EPA insists the change merely 'expands opportunities' and helps 'protect the environment,' language that sits awkwardly next to the fact that state regulators just lost their most reliable tool for knowing what these plants actually emit. A related proposed rule would also let 'minor' pollution sources skip public notice and comment altogether.

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