Beat the AI Clock: Federal Initiatives to Accelerate Data Center Environmental Permitting and Brownfield Opportunities

As the United States seeks to maintain primacy in data processing and artificial intelligence, the Trump Administration is taking steps to reduce the regulatory burdens for development of data centers necessary to sustain this dominance. 

Perhaps chief among these is President Trump’s Executive Order 14318 issued on July 23, 2025, and titled “Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure” (E.O. 14318). E.O. 14318 directs federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to explore and drive opportunities to reduce regulatory permitting and other hurdles for data centers and their component supply chains. E.O. 14318 applies to “Qualifying Projects,” which include certain large scale or nationally strategic “Data Center Projects” or “Covered Component Projects,” encapsulating much of the parts and supply chain and energy needs for large data centers. 

Under E.O. 14318, federal departments and agencies must pursue several key environmental regulatory, permitting and policy actions:

1. NEPA Process Exemption Coordination. Federal environmental agencies must identify existing categorical exclusions from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process, and “the Council on Environmental Quality shall coordinate with relevant agencies on the establishment of new categorical exclusions to cover actions related to Qualifying Projects that normally do not have a significant effect on the human environment.” E.O. 14318 also expressly applies other NEPA exceptions for Qualifying Projects based on lack of “substantial Federal control and responsibility” for Qualifying Project funding, including where federal funding comprises less than half of the Qualify Project’s capital investment.
2. Expediting Environmental Permitting and Exemptions. EPA must “assist in expediting permitting on Federal and non-Federal lands by developing or modifying regulations promulgated under” various federal environmental laws affecting development of Qualifying Projects. In addition, the Secretary of the Army must consider whether “any activity-specific nationwide permit” under Clean Water Act § 404 (for impacts to “waters of the United States”) and Section 10 of Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899 (for impacts to traditionally navigable waters) is appropriate “to facilitate the efficient permitting of activities related to Qualifying Projects.” E.O. 14318  also requires federal agency consultation under the Endangered Species Act “on a programmatic level” for “common construction activities for Qualifying Projects to occur over the next 10 years” on federal lands.
3. Brownfield and Superfund Site Reuse. EPA must “expeditiously identify Brownfield Sites and Superfund Sites for use by Qualifying Projects.” To that end, within 180 days of issuance of E.O. 14318, EPA “shall develop guidance to help expedite environmental reviews for qualified reuse” and to guide states and private parties to make use of brownfield and Superfund sites for Qualifying Projects. EPA has more recently announced it is working on this guidance, focusing on criteria for brownfield site selection for reuse for Qualified Projects, rather than specifying particular properties for such development. That guidance may prove pivotal for encouraging data center development at contaminated sites.

While the federal push is on, some states and localities are feeling energy supply or political pressures (or both), which could temper development in certain locations. In Virginia, the nation’s largest data center, there is increasing scrutiny over the shortage of energy generation and transmission capacity and how to allocate these resources to serve data centers while meeting a host of other industrial, commercial, and residential demands. Data center development and its tie to energy policy is expected to be a substantial consideration in the coming 2026 General Assembly and with the incoming Spanberger administration in the Governor’s Office. Meanwhile, some localities are becoming more cautious about data center development as a land use, based often on perceptions of noisy operations, air pollution, energy demand affecting local grid capacity, and water supply.

As data centers are expected to proliferate across the country, the degree to which state and local policies align with or constrain the federal drive to facilitate data center development remains to be seen. State environmental and energy regulatory and land use policies that materially conflict with federal efforts to streamline data center development would only complicate an already complex effort to sustain America’s data center and AI dominance. Accordingly, and also challenging, proper balancing of these interests will be imperative for all stakeholders.

Executive Order 14318, “Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure” (July 23, 2025);
United States Environmental Protection Agency, “ICYMI: Administrator Zeldin in The Hill: EPA Has a Huge Role in American AI Dominance” (September 17, 2025);
“EPA's Brownfields Office Advancing Criteria To Locate AI Data Centers,” InsideEPA.com's Daily Briefing, 2025 WLNR 29929996 (November 13, 2025)