With polls showing broad, bipartisan opposition to data centers and Republican strategists issuing unsubtle warnings about the scope of the election-season public backlash, Donald Trump has thrown caution to the wind and become an enthusiastic cheerleader for the industry.
In fact, as recently as last week, the president adopted a surprisingly descending tone toward the American mainstream, arguing online that the “only reason” a community would reject a data center is because it wants to be “backwards and poor.”
In other words, Americans will have only themselves to blame for failing to recognize the awesomeness of data centers. Indeed, he reiterated this point seven days ago, telling reporters at an unrelated Oval Office event, “If you want to get rich as a state or as a town, if you want to pay lower taxes, if you want to create tremendous wealth, if you want your house to be more valuable and everything else, you’re going to want a data center. If you want to go through poverty, crime and squalor, I would say don’t approve data centers.”
But as always, it’s important to recognize not just what Trump and his team are saying, but also what they’re doing.
We learned two weeks ago, for example, that the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with plans to limit the public-comment process surrounding data center construction. The New York Times reported that, under the EPA’s approach, residents in local communities might lose the ability to raise concerns about data centers before permits are approved and construction starts.
In some cases, people might not even learn the projects exist until it’s too late.
This week, Axios published a related report on what else Trump’s EPA is doing:
The Trump administration is reshaping regulations to make data centers — and the fossil-fuel power fueling them — easier to build. … The Environmental Protection Agency is considering a rule that could treat some temporary gas turbines as mobile equipment rather than stationary pollution sources, potentially making them easier to permit, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council’s John Walke.
“We have been told by senior people at EPA that there is a pants-on-fire, hasty rulemaking proposal underway,” said Walke, director of NRDC’s federal clean air program. “It’s being driven squarely by concern for data centers.”
While the EPA did not comment on the developments, and MS NOW has not independently verified the Axios report, it’s not the only relevant evidence to keep in mind.
The Washington Sun also reported this week that Trump’s Bureau of Land Management, which is part of the Interior Department, “has asked its state directors to identify public land ripe for data center development.” The article, which has also not been independently verified by MS NOW, added:
Interior leadership gave state leaders just three days to produce the lists and told its directors the issue was a top priority, according to a former BLM official involved in the discussions. The request has encountered several challenges: Bureau lands are typically remote and not near basics like electricity and water, agency staff lack the technical expertise to conduct requisite reviews, and overwhelming vacancies after dramatic staffing losses under Trump have diminished capacity.
The directive follows an executive order Trump issued last year to accelerate permitting for data centers, including by identifying federal lands that could accommodate them.
The problem, in other words, isn’t limited to Trump’s indifference to public opposition. Making matters worse are the steps the president and his administration are taking to overpower public opposition.
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