Mark Kelly
10/05/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/05/2026 16:20
Kelly, Whitehouse Press EPA, AI Companies on Rollback of Public Input Rules for Data Center Air Permits
U.S. Senators Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, sent 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," wrote the senators to 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," 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 Kelly and Whitehouse, the letter to the EPA was co-signed by Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Edward Markey (D-MA), and Adam Schiff (D-CA).
In addition to Kelly and Whitehouse, the letter to the data companies was co-signed by Ron Wyden (D-OR), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), and Adam Schiff (D-CA).
Read the full letter to the EPA here.
Read the full letter to the AI companies here.
Mark Kelly published this content on October 05, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on October 05, 2026 at 22:20 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]