The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent Clean Air Act initiatives are creating opportunities for data center and industrial project developers, particularly related to activities surrounding preconstruction and construction activities that may be undertaken during the permitting process. Anticipated changes to the Agency’s New Source Review (NSR) requirements will greatly influence the time frames for development and construction of data centers.
Consistent with President Trump’s executive order on July 23, the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation has unveiled the Clean Air Act Resources for Data Centers webpage consolidating air permitting, regulatory, and modeling materials tailored to data centers and artificial intelligence (AI) facilities. The initiative is framed as part of broader efforts under Trump’s AI and infrastructure directives to modernize older Clean Air Act rules and to accelerate regulatory approvals for the construction of data centers and associated electric generation necessary for these facilities. The webpage highlights upcoming regulatory actions, including important revisions to how the agency will define commencement of construction under the Clean Air Act. Revisions of this historical definition may provide substantial flexibility to allow project developers to better plan construction of emission sources. This rulemaking is expected to be proposed in early 2026 and finalized by fall of the same year. Together, the new resource hub and upcoming NSR rule revisions signal a policy direction toward enabling faster build‑out of data center infrastructure.
Engagement in the anticipated NSR rulemaking and other potential Clean Air Act rulemaking will be key for owners, developers, and contractors wishing to shape the long‑term regulatory framework on which development of these large projects will be based. It is critical to begin considering how projects may benefit from changes to air permitting and other requirements which are currently regulating construction activities.
Industry stakeholders should begin developing internal technical and legal analyses of regulatory obligations, monitoring EPA regulatory dockets and the data center resource page, and preparing for thoughtful participation in rulemaking comment periods.
