Duckworth Join Colleagues in Pressing EPA, AI Companies on Rollback of Public Input Rules for Data Center Air Permits

Duckworth Join Colleagues in Pressing EPA, AI Companies on Rollback of Public Input Rules for Data Center Air Permits

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), co-chair of the Senate Environmental Justice Caucus, joined U.S. Senators Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and other members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, in sending two letters opposing the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposal to eliminate 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. One letter is addressed to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin urging him to withdraw the proposed rule. The other letter is addressed to nine major data center companies-Anthropic, AWS, Fermi, Google, Joule, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and xAI-calling on 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.

"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," wrote 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 Duckworth, Kelly and Whitehouse, the letter to the EPA was co-signed by U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Edward Markey (D-MA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA).

In addition to Duckworth, Kelly and Whitehouse, the letter to the data companies was co-signed by Ron Wyden (D-OR), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Adam Schiff (D-CA).

The full letter to the EPA is available on Senator Duckworth's website.

The full letter to the data companies is also available on Senator Duckworth's website.

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