Artificial
intelligence
is
top
of
mind
for
President-elect
Donald
Trump’s
pick
to
lead
the
Environmental
Protection
Agency,
former
Rep.
Lee
Zeldin
(R-NY).
Zeldin
plans
to
help
“unleash US energy
dominance”
and
“make
America
the
AI
capital
of
the
world,”
he
said
in
a
post
on
X
today.
The
EPA
regulates
emissions
that
pollute
the
air
and
cause
climate
change,
giving
it
a
huge
role
to
play
in
how
much
the
rise
of
energy-hungry
AI
leads
to
a
jump
in
power
plant
pollution.
From
the
looks
of
it,
though,
the
EPA’s
incoming
leader
is
prioritizing
making
sure
environmental
protections
don’t
get
in
the
way
of
doing
business
—
particularly
when
it
comes
to
expanding
AI
data
centers.
Environmental
advocates
are
already
concerned
about
Trump’s
plans
for
the
EPA.
“We
can
meet
demand
for
data
centers
without
scrapping
EPA
rules
to
clean
up
dirty
power
plants
and
cut
climate
pollution,”
Manish
Bapna,
president
of
the
Natural
Resources
Defense
Council
(NRDC),
said
in
a
statement
responding
to
Zeldin’s
appointment.
“We
count
on
the
EPA
to
protect
clean
air
and
water
and
public
health
and
that’s
what
we’ll
hold
the
next
administrator
accountable
to
do.”
If
he
makes
good
on
campaign
promises,
Trump’s
next
term
in
office
is
sure
to
be
a
deregulation
spree.
The
last
time
Trump
was
in
the
White
House,
his
administration
rolled
back
more
than
100
environmental
regulations
and
stacked
the
Supreme
Court
with
justices
whose
decisions
have
curbed
the
ability
of
federal
agencies
to
regulate
industry.
Zeldin
will
“ensure
fair
and
swift
deregulatory
decisions
that
will
be
enacted
in
a
way
to
unleash
the
power
of
American
businesses,
while
at
the
same
time
maintaining
the
highest
environmental
standards,”
Trump
posted on
Truth
Social
yesterday.
During
a
three-hour
interview with
Joe
Rogan
on
October
25th,
Trump
also
complained
about
environmental
impact
studies
that
he
said
made
it
more
difficult
to
complete
his
own
building
projects
in
the
past.
“The
environmental
stuff
was
always
horrible.
They
could
slow
a
project
down
10
years,
15
years,”
he
said.
“Remember
this,
it
costs
much
more
to
do
things
environmentally
clean.”
Zeldin
has
also
faced
off
with
environmental
groups
over
the
years.
The
League
of
Conservation
Voters
(LCV),
which
rates
lawmakers’
environmental
track
records,
has
given
Zeldin
an
abysmal
14
percent
lifetime
score.
He
has
accepted
more
than
$269,000
from
the
oil
and
gas
industry
and
close
to
$1.5
million
from
real
estate
while
running
for
Congress,
according
to
the
nonprofit
OpenSecrets
that
tracks
campaign
contributions.
(Trump
picked fossil
fuel
lobbyists to
lead
the
EPA
when
he
was
last
in
office.)
“Remember
this,
it
costs
much
more
to
do
things
environmentally
clean.”
Some
environmental
advocates
are
holding
out
hope
that
they’ll
be
able
to
salvage
long-standing
environmental
rules
with
Zeldin,
rather
than
seeing
a
worst-case
scenario
outlined
in
Project
2025
that
would
all
but
dismantle
the
EPA.
(Although
Zeldin
voted
to
slash
the
EPA’s
budget
by
25
percent
in
2017,
which
could
have
eliminated
3,200
staff
positions
at
the
agency.)
“While
we
did
not
always
see
eye
to
eye
with
Rep.
Zeldin,
we
did
work
to
find
common
ground
on
several
issues
during
his
time
in
office,”
Julie
Tighe,
New
York
League
of
Conservation
Voters
president,
said
in
an
email.
She
pointed
to
Zeldin’s
opposition
to
offshore
drilling
during
Trump’s
previous
administration
as
an
example.
Data
centers,
which
tend
to
gobble
up
more
energy
when
used
for
training
AI,
have
become
a
hot-button
environmental
topic.
Until
recently,
gains
in
energy
efficiency
have
allowed
data
center
power
use
to
stay
relatively
flat.
Now,
with
the
popularity
of
AI
and
efficiency
gains
waning,
data
center
power
demand
could
climb
160
percent
by
2030,
according
to
Goldman
Sachs
Research.
The
US
has
more
data
centers
than
any
other
country,
and
their
growing
appetite
for
electricity
could
lead
to
more
pollution
from
the
power
sector.
To
their
credit,
American
tech
companies
have
been
among
the
biggest
purchasers
of
renewable
energy.
Big
tech
companies,
including
Google
and
Microsoft,
have
also
signed
a
slew
of
new
agreements
this
year
to
try
to
revive
the
nuclear
energy
industry
in
a
bid
to
shore
up
another
source
of
carbon
pollution-free
power.
Nevertheless,
both
Google
and
Microsoft
have
seen
their
carbon
footprints
grow
as
they
develop
new
AI
tools.
Typical
data
centers
still
plug
into
the
local
power
grid,
and
the
US
gets
60
percent
of
its
electricity
from
fossil
fuels.
Trump
previously
repealed
an
Obama-era
plan
to
slash
power
plant
emissions
and
replaced
it
with
weaker
regulations,
a
decision
the
EPA
estimated
would lead
to
thousands
more
deaths
and
“exacerbated”
asthma
cases
from
pollution. The
Biden
administration
introduced
tougher
standards
for
coal-fired
power
plants
but
punted
a
decision
on
emissions
from
the
nation’s
existing
fleet
of
gas-fired
plants
until
after
the
election.
Now,
with
Trump
headed
back
to
the
White
House,
these
rules
are
in
jeopardy.
“The
two
things
we
know
for
certain
are
that
Trump
has
tried
to
cripple
EPA
in
the
past
and
he
has
tasked
his
new
pick
to
head
EPA
with
rolling
back
dozens
of
clean
air
and
water
regulations,” Jeremy
Symons,
senior
adviser
to
Environmental
Protection
Network
and
former
EPA
climate
adviser,
said
in
an
email
to
The
Verge.
“Hopefully
Zeldin
can
rise
above
his
alarming
EPA
voting
record
and
will
recognize
there
is
broad
and
bipartisan
public
support
for
EPA’s
work
to
protect
the
air
we
breathe
and
the
water
we
drink,”
Symons
added.
Original author: Justine Calma
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