Former US Environmental Protection Agency officials have accused the Trump administration of dismantling pollution safeguards to fast-track the construction of AI data centres, warning that the resulting reliance on fossil fuels and lax oversight poses growing health risks to Americans. The group, now part of the Environmental Protection Network, is calling on President Trump to adopt a "Data Center Health Protection Pledge", though they concede the appeal is unlikely to succeed given the administration's deregulatory agenda under EPA administrator Lee Zeldin.

A new report from the network identifies 30 federal actions taken since January 2025 that it says worsen health risks linked to data centre pollution, 17 of which specifically target AI infrastructure or data centres. These include Trump's July 2025 "AI Action Plan", which proposed loosening protections under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Superfund law, alongside moves that favour new gas-fired power plants and have revived production of persistent "forever chemicals" used in chip manufacturing. The report cites research suggesting AI-related air pollution could cause up to 1,300 premature deaths and $20 billion (£15.7 billion) in public health costs by 2028, a toll former officials warn could rise further, noting the harm can extend far beyond communities living near the data centres themselves.