The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last week it will prioritize reviewing new chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act, designated for use in data center projects or manufacturing covered components for the facilities’ computing machines and hardware equipment.
The action aims to streamline the permitting process as well as support President Donald Trump’s executive orders aimed at boosting data center infrastructure and accelerating the development of new artificial intelligence systems in the United States.
The actions are part of EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s “Powering the Great American Comeback” initiative that aims to create more jobs and grow the U.S. economy.Those efforts include streamlining permit processing as well as expanding the U.S.’s artificial intelligence and data center global footprint, which involves TSCA pre-manufacturing chemical review.
Under the TSCA law, manufacturers and processors are required to submit pre-manufacture notices, or PMNs, for new chemicals. They are also required to submit a significant new use notice, or SNUN, if they plan to use existing chemicals for new uses.
However, in December 2024, the agency under the Biden administration finalized an amendment under TSCA requiring manufacturers to submit advance federal notice before adding any new chemicals, particularly PFAS, or other toxic substances into their production processes.
The rule, which went into effect Jan. 17, aligns with the chemical safety amendment enacted in 2016 under TSCA, known as the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act.
The TSCA amendment gives the EPA additional testing authority, helping the agency to gather information on new chemicals. This allows the EPA to determine if the material poses a health or environmental risk, if there is sufficient information about the chemical, any risks associated with the manufacturing process and the amount that will be produced.
From this evaluation, the EPA is then required to take action against any risks the toxic substances may pose, such as issuing a rule to limit or ban the chemical’s amount used in manufacturing, processing or distribution.
The effort comes days after the agency held an AI roundtable with C-suite executives including from Hitachi Americas and the Data Center Coalition. Zeldin said in the Sept. 18 press release that the EPA inherited a “massive backlog” of new chemical reviews from the Biden administration, hindering data center and AI-related projects.
In January, the Government Accountability Office released a report that found the EPA’s new chemical review process is taking longer than the expected 90 days, harming manufacturers’ customer relations and prompting them to introduce and make new products outside the U.S.
“The Trump EPA wants to get out of the way and help speed up progress on these critical developments, as opposed to gumming up the works,” said EPA Administrator Zeldin.
Some of the chemicals used for data centers are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, used to produce cooling refrigerants. Companies such as Chemours, a legacy PFAS user and maker, are jumping in the data center and AI sectors to address the rising demand.
The EPA posted instructions for manufacturers on how to submit as well as the required information supporting their request. The prioritization reviews are set to begin on or after Sept. 29, according to the press release.
