Displaying items by tag: epa and data centers

Sixty data centers are operating or under construction in Tennessee, with 25 in the Nashville area. Karen Pulfer Focht/Tennessee Lookout

As Elon's turbines pollute Memphis, EPA head urges hands-off approach to data centers

This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.

NASHVILLE — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin called New York’s recently announced statewide moratorium on data centers an “easy way to cop out” during an appearance at the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Infrastructure Summit on July 14.

Data centers — which house the computer servers and storage that power the internet, cloud computing and artificial intelligence — range in size from single rooms to massive campuses that can use as much power as an entire city. Zeldin said he’s seen both bad and good data center projects throughout the country.

The EPA recently joined the U.S. Department of Justice in petitioning to stop an environmental lawsuit filed by the NAACP against xAI, which accuses Elon Musk’s company of building a power plant composed of gas-powered turbines near the Tennessee-Mississippi border without obtaining permits to power its Colossus 2 data center in south Memphis.

The good news, he said, is that “Americans mostly want to make America the (Artificial Intelligence) capital of the world.”

“The bad news is that when they think about data centers, too often they’re only hearing about those controversial projects,” he said. But Zeldin warned communities against shutting down all data center development.

“For a local community that is thinking through bringing a data center to their area, I would encourage them to ask three questions: Is the project going to make my bills go up or down? Is the project going to be a net provider onto the grid, or a net taker? And what are they going to do with water? Is it a closed-loop data center? Is it 100 percent recyclable?” Zeldin said.

The remarks were part of a speech centered on reducing the federal agency’s regulatory power to “nothing less, but nothing more” than what federal statute spells out.