You’ve probably noticed that every time tech billionaires promise us the future, it somehow involves stripping away something we actually need. Like clean air. Or the democratic right to complain about the lack of it.
Enter Lee Zeldin, the current head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Last year, he declared that the agency’s top priority is to “make the United States the artificial intelligence capital of the world.”
Let that sink in for a second. The Environmental Protection Agency—the 56-year-old institution founded in 1970 specifically to stop corporations from poisoning our communities—has decided its real calling is serving as a concierge for the AI industry.
An agency born to protect the air we breathe is now handing out VIP passes to corporate polluters.
The EPA is currently planning to scrap public review rules for data center pollution. That means when a massive, power-hungry data center drops next to your neighborhood, sucking up the energy of a small city and belching out diesel exhaust, you won’t even have the right to say a word about it. The public oversight is being deleted to speed up the build-out.
You might think, “Well, that’s the price of progress.” But it’s not progress for you. It’s progress for them.
The AI arms race has effectively superseded environmental law. It used to be that if a company wanted to build a massive, polluting facility, the local community had a say. You could organize, demand environmental impact studies, and force them to do better. Massachusetts actually did this right—they stipulated that you can build a data center, but you need to power it with renewable energy. Build your own clean infrastructure.
But under the current administration, the government isn’t protecting you; it’s protecting the LLMs from public interference.
We are trading the physical health and democratic rights of local communities for the digital intelligence of a few billionaires.
This isn’t just about a few server farms. It’s about regulatory capture on steroids. The government is actively dismantling the very checks and balances that keep corporate power in check, all to subsidize a tech arms race that benefits a tiny fraction of the population.
When the agency tasked with protecting the environment becomes its biggest threat, we aren’t living in a tech boom. We’re living in a slow, silent surrender. The AI capital of the world is being built, but the cost of admission is your right to breathe.
Progress isn’t unchecked when it’s subsidized by the lungs of the working class; it’s just theft dressed up in silicon.
FAQ
Q: Isn't AI progress worth a little environmental compromise?
A: No. 'Compromise' implies both sides get something. Here, local communities get the pollution, and tech billionaires get the profits. That's not compromise; it's a corporate shakedown.
Q: What does removing public review rules actually do?
A: It strips local communities of their democratic right to challenge or demand environmental impact studies for massive data centers being built in their backyards. It silences the public to speed up corporate construction.
Q: If we don't do this, won't we lose the AI arms race to China?
A: That's the fear-mongering excuse used to justify gutting regulations. We can build AI infrastructure without destroying local air quality—Massachusetts mandated renewable energy for data centers. The EPA is choosing the lazy, corporate-friendly route, not the necessary one.