The Trump administration recently released America’s AI Action Plan, a document that outlines how and why the government plans to support the growth of artificial intelligence in the United States.

“Whoever has the largest AI ecosystem will set global AI standards and reap broad economic and military benefits,” according to the plan. “Just like we won the space race, it is imperative that the United States and its allies win this race.”

The plan mentions the benefits AI could bring the country and the world, including innovations in medicine, chemistry, energy development, and education.

To make America the world’s AI development hub, the Trump administration “will continue to reject radical climate dogma and bureaucratic red tape,” according to the plan, and it directs federal agencies to seek information from businesses and citizens, and to search themselves, for federal regulations they think are a hindrance to AI development.

Critics of the plan, including some members of Congress, are concerned that the push will come at the expense of the environment and public health because of the vast network of data centers needed to develop the emerging technology.

Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., held a webinar Wednesday to discuss some of these concerns and to share a story map that told the stories of Americans who say they have already been negatively impacted by these large data centers.

“When it comes to keeping communities and our environment safe it’s actually an AI ‘in-action’ plan,” said Markey, with “no environmental reviews of data centers, no protections from the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, or even the Superfund Act to keep communities safe from potential harm.

“This AI in-action plan wants to create loopholes so big in our federal environmental laws that you could actually build a hyper-scale data center inside of them.”

Concerns over the data centers, which generate energy to run AI platforms and tools, such as ChatGPT, X’s Grok, and Google’s AI search engine summaries, range from their high energy usage to the water and air pollution they may cause.

Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., noted a data center in his district in Memphis, operated by one of Elon Musk’s companies, uses millions of gallons of water for cooling and hundreds of megawatts of energy each year. The data center also uses natural gas turbines, which have added pollutants to the air, he said.

Although there have been some benefits from the data center, including job creation and a gray water project, Cohen said he questions whether those offsets are really enough.

“We’ve got to be leery of the future but welcoming at the same time,” he said.

Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program, said as the demand for energy goes up, the cost to other consumers increases with it.

“Data centers use so much electric power that it is forcing other consumers to pick up the bill,” he said. “So, big tech and private equity data centers that are running the supercomputers for generative AI and other purposes are not paying their fair share.”

Markey noted that with President Trump’s rollbacks on green energy policies, fossil fuel burning power plants will likely be employed to fulfill the country’s growing energy needs.

Alongside energy usage, water usage at data centers is also increasing, according to Julie Bolthouse, director of land use for the Piedmont Environmental Council, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group in Virginia.

The increased demand will mean more draws on groundwater and the need to increase the capacity of water infrastructure, Bolthouse said, and the resource is already precarious in many places.

Although many of the data center regulation changes proposed in the action plan are federal, the plan also noted that the Federal Communications Commission will evaluate how state policies are impacting AI development.

In Rhode Island, a bill was introduced in the General Assembly this year that would have created tax and regulatory incentives for data centers, but it didn’t make it out of committee.

“These proposals for data centers are coming to places, especially where they haven’t been before, and especially in places that are disproportionately affected by environmental injustices,” said Morgan King, the climate and energy manager with the West Virginia Citizens Action Group.

Data centers are already operating in West Virginia, King said, in places where there has been historic pollution.

“More than ever,” she said, “organizers across the country and local communities need resources and support to be able to fight these centers on the ground, and to be able to advocate for stronger protections and policies.”