Companies looking to build new power plants or factories may be able to start construction before getting required air pollution permits, under a proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Trump administration officials say this will help speed up development needed to power artificial intelligence efforts and to reshore manufacturing.
But environmental advocates say it would undermine clean air protections and deny public involvement in communities where polluting facilities are built.
EPA said the move “provides flexibility to begin certain building activities that are not related to air emissions, such as installing cement pads, before obtaining a Clean Air Act construction permit.”
“For years, Clean Air Act permitting has been an obstacle to innovation and growth,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. “We are continuing to fix this broken system. Today’s guidance is another step to allow the build out of essential power generation, data centers, and manufacturing projects that will bring about America’s Golden Age.”
The Clean Air Act was first enacted in 1955 and got major updates in the 1970s. It aims to protect human health and the environment from emissions that pollute the air.
EPA must go through the regulatory process to change the definition of “begin actual construction” in permitting new or updated sources of air pollution. Officials hope to finalize a rule in 2026.
Zeldin joined President Donald Trump at the Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University in July. The event, organized by Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), sought to position Pennsylvania as a leader in AI and the energy needed to power it, with an emphasis on natural gas.
Following the event, Zeldin wrote in an op-ed that permit reform “is a core pillar of my Powering the Great American Comeback initiative.”
While the details of the proposal are not yet released, the move signals an attempted rollback of Clean Air Act protections, said Angela Kilbert, senior attorney with PennFuture.
“Allowing for a broader amount of pre-construction before air permitting exists, runs the risk of a source becoming a foregone conclusion,” Kilbert said. “It will undermine the ability of the agency to actually review what the source intends to be and do, and it also undermines what the public is able to comment on.”
Alex Bomstein, executive director of Clean Air Council, said companies can exert more pressure on regulators if they can start building, and investing, before getting all their permits.
“A lot of permitting is political. It shouldn’t be, but it is,” Bomstein said.
He said the Clean Air Act is estimated to have created trillions of dollars in benefits for Americans’ health and welfare.
“This is yet another attempt to chip away at it, to make it less effective, to make sure we don’t get those savings, to make sure that we are sicker and die younger; and all in the service of the fossil fuel industry and AI dominance,” Bomstein said.
