Former Environmental Protection Agency officials are warning that the pollution powering America's AI data center boom could impose up to $20.9 billion in annual public health costs and contribute to 1,300 premature deaths a year under a rapid-development scenario, according to a new report. The findings, tied to more than 600,000 additional asthma cases nationwide, land as federal regulators roll back the very safeguards that once stood in the pollution's way.
The report comes from the Environmental Protection Network, a nonprofit made up of current and former EPA staff and leadership, as reported by New Orleans CityBusiness. The group says stronger pollution safeguards, planned fossil-fuel plant retirements, and the expansion of cleaner power were all on track to constrain additional pollution from rising electricity demand before Donald Trump returned to office in 2025, per the same report. AI expansion is now driving demand for electricity to power a wave of new data centers, and the group's findings parallel a 2026 academic study on data center-related air pollution.
That academic research, conducted by scientists at UC Riverside and Caltech using official EPA statistical air quality modeling, projected that pollution tied to AI data center power demand could impose up to $20.9 billion in annual public health costs by 2030, according to Caltech. That figure is roughly double the estimated public health impact of the entire U.S. steel-making industry, per the same study published on arXiv.
A Rollback of Safeguards Already Underway
The Environmental Protection Network's report identified more than 30 federal actions the group says increase pollution-related health risks, according to New Orleans CityBusiness. Those actions include narrowing environmental reviews for approved projects, changing minimum public participation requirements for pollution permits, and moving to end citizen-led pollution lawsuits, per the same reporting.
The regulatory shift has legal teeth. In July 2025, the Trump administration issued Executive Order 14318, directing federal agencies to fast-track approvals for energy generation equipment — including natural gas turbines and fossil fuel power equipment — serving data center projects, according to Arnold & Porter. The same source also describes a clarification involving permits for data center projects.
The report discusses permitting issues, including air-quality permitting for plant modifications.
Former Officials Say the Agency Is Stretched Thin
Walter Mugdan, who worked for the federal agency for 48 years, said public involvement in decision making is not just red tape, per New Orleans CityBusiness. The EPA workforce totaled more than 16,000 employees before January 2025, but Trump administration staffing cuts affected roughly 25% of that workforce, according to the same report. The Environmental Protection Network has separately opposed an EPA proposal that would eliminate mandatory public notice and comment for some minor-source air permits.
Lynn Goldman said the massive AI buildout can have enormous consequences for America's health, and added that without tough permitting or enforcement, people are not incentivized to do the right thing, according to New Orleans CityBusiness. The Environmental Protection Network argues the EPA is unprepared to manage pollution increases associated with AI data center expansion, and says current federal policies could allow more-polluting power sources to remain online or new ones to be added.
Dr. Dan Costa, former National Program Director for the EPA's Air, Climate, and Energy Research Program who spent 35 years leading health and air quality research inside the agency, said in September that existing estimates of 1,300 annual premature deaths represent baseline growth and do not measure the additional health risks posed by 30 recent federal regulatory rollbacks, according to Common Dreams. The dossier's research notes caution that the health risk projections — $11.7 billion annually by 2028 to $20.9 billion by 2030, 1,300 premature deaths, and 600,000 asthma attacks — originate from baseline academic modeling that does not yet account for those compound regulatory effects.
A Boom With No End in Sight
The scale of the buildout helps explain the stakes. More than 1,300 data centers are currently operating across the United States, with over 2,000 additional facilities planned or under development, according to the Baton Rouge Business Report. That surge is concentrated in tech hubs and rural communities offering cheap land and power access, per the same reporting.
AI data center expansion is increasing U.S. power demand and putting pressure on electricity grids. That demand crunch has also strained New York's grid amid an influx of energy-intensive AI facilities, according to earlier Hoodline coverage.
What the Environmental Protection Network Wants Changed
The Environmental Protection Network's report calls for restoring pollution safeguards and rebuilding the EPA's scaled-back enforcement division, per New Orleans CityBusiness. The group says the federal government should require power plants supplying data centers with electricity to manage their pollution, and should properly permit and monitor on-site power generation at data centers.
To that end, the group has proposed a federal Data Center Health Protection Pledge to ensure nearby communities do not suffer unmitigated health risks, modeling the proposal on the White House's Ratepayer Protection Pledge for electric utility bills. The Environmental Protection Network maintains that increased health risks from data center pollution are not an inevitable consequence of AI expansion, but rather a matter of policy choices about how the buildout is permitted and monitored.
