In recent months, the Trump administration has opened a deregulatory floodgate in the name of building more data centers. Among other things, this has involved ordering rollbacks of clean water regulations and opening up public lands to coal mining.
Now, it’s turning its eye to chemical regulation with a new policy that could, experts say, potentially fast-track the approval of new chemicals for use in the US—including new types of forever chemicals—with limited oversight.
In September, the EPA announced it would be prioritizing the regulatory review of new chemicals used in data centers or related projects. The announcement is part of a sweeping set of overhauls pushed by the Trump administration following several executive orders related to AI and a White House AI Action Plan, both rolled out in July. The Action Plan was formed after soliciting more than 10,000 public comments, which included hundreds from industry interests. These actions, the White House has said, will usher in a “golden age for American manufacturing and technological dominance.”
“I think they want to impose as few restrictions as possible on chemicals,” says Greg Schweer, who served as the EPA chief of the new chemicals management branch between 2008 and 2020. “In previous administrations, political people stayed out of [chemical regulation]—they tried to let science win. Here, the industry has a willing set of ears that wants to listen to their opinions.”
September’s announcement was part of a larger push to expedite new chemical reviews at the EPA. The new chemical review process underwent a significant reform in 2016; in the decade since, a backlog of chemical reviews has piled up at the agency, garnering complaints from industry and bipartisan criticism from lawmakers. Clearing out that backlog has been a priority of Trump’s second-term EPA. Helping to lead that charge at the agency are several former chemical industry executives, lobbyists, and lawyers.
“We inherited a massive backlog of new chemical reviews from the Biden Administration which is getting in the way of projects as it pertains to data center and artificial intelligence projects,” EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement. “The Trump EPA wants to get out of the way and help speed up progress on these critical developments, as opposed to gumming up the works.”
As part of September’s announcement, the EPA created instructions for companies to submit documentation showing that the chemical for which they are seeking expedited review is part of a “qualifying project.” Companies must prove that the substance they want reviewed more quickly will be used in data centers or “covered component projects.” That includes projects that add at least 100 megawatts to the electric grid or projects that “[protect] national security,” as well as any projects deemed applicable by the secretary of defense, the secretary of the interior, the secretary of commerce, or the secretary of energy.