Key facts
- Datacenter developers are accused of dividing emissions sources into multiple "minor" permits to avoid major regulatory reviews.
- This tactic allows companies to bypass stricter oversight, gain faster approvals, and potentially save money on pollution controls.
- Datacenters can be significant sources of nitrogen oxide, ozone, heavy metals, particulate matter, and greenhouse gases.
- In North Carolina, Amazon and Duke Energy submitted separate permits for 649 diesel generators, which advocates claim was an attempt to avoid a major review.
- Project Jupiter developers in New Mexico withdrew an application to build two natural gas "microgrids" under separate "minor" permits after facing community and regulatory opposition.
- Michael Koerber, a retired EPA official, stated that developers "want to fly under the radar" to expedite permit approvals.
Datacenter developers are accused by environmental advocates of exploiting loopholes in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) air pollution permitting process to avoid stringent reviews and pollution controls. This practice, described as "lego permitting" by a former EPA official, involves dividing emissions sources into multiple "minor" permits rather than applying for a single "major" permit, which requires more rigorous oversight and potential pollution mitigation.
Advocates argue this strategy allows companies to bypass public scrutiny, expedite permit approvals, and avoid the costs associated with installing pollution control technologies like scrubbers. Datacenters can emit significant amounts of pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, ozone, heavy metals, particulate matter, and greenhouse gases.
In North Carolina, Amazon and Duke Energy submitted separate permits for 649 diesel generators intended as backup for a new hyperscale center. Advocates claim this division was an attempt to avoid a major review, despite the project's potential to release nearly 250 tons per year of various pollutants and 98 tons of particulate matter annually. Amazon stated that the separate permitting reflects the actual ownership and operational structure of their respective projects.
Similarly, in New Mexico, developers of the Project Jupiter datacenter proposed two "minor" permits for natural gas "microgrids" on either side of the facility, which together would have released up to 44 tons of hazardous air pollutants, exceeding the 25-ton annual limit for a single minor permit. Attorneys for the New Mexico Environmental Law Center called the attempt "preposterous" and "audacious." The application was withdrawn in April amid community opposition and opposition from the New Mexico environment department. New plans for the datacenter are currently held up by the state supreme court.