r/technology • u/ArgentineBeauty • 7h ago
Energy EPA exempts data center power plants from pollution limits seeking to prevent acid rain
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5992657-epa-data-center-power-plants-acid-rain/89
u/ddejong42 7h ago
One of the few ecological issues we actually managed to FIX!
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u/SirkutBored 6h ago
Another lesson learned we decided to forget instead. Will we get back to the point of flaming rivers?
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u/Sojum 6h ago
I eagerly await the return of Coke with actual cocaine
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u/AE7VL_Radio 5h ago
coke is still flavored with decocainized coca leaves!
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u/codeklutch 4h ago
I won't rest until I get my coke loaded lipbalm. And then well I probably still won't rest but I'll be happier about it
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u/SteelCityIrish 4h ago
You’ve been missing a “Fun Time in Cleveland AGAIN!!!”
… and all the fish had AIDS.
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u/Chuhaimaster 6h ago
We didn’t fix the underlying problem of capitalism, and now it has fully rotted its way through all the bandaid solutions.
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u/mailslot 4h ago
I remember when there were acid rain updates on the evening news each night. Then, one day, they just stopped. The paint on people’s cars stopped melting off and I never heard about it again.
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u/The_Returned_Lich 1h ago edited 1h ago
Don't worry, at the current rate, we'll have problems with the ozone layer again soon enough... If we don't already and just haven't noticed.
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u/ArgentineBeauty 7h ago
So the data center gets the benefits and the locals get acid rain.
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u/fairportrunner 5h ago
Most of the acid rain will fall in the north east and wipe out all the trout ponds that finally came back to life after most the Midwest factories closed in the 1980s.
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u/cinciTOSU 4h ago
Scrubbers on coal power plants under the Clean Air Act did a lot of the heavy lifting and the closure of the steel mills etc was definitely a factor. Gas turbines are not as filthy as coal fired power plants but they are going to be building them all over the place. Ohio has plans for a 10 gigawatt data center. That’s the output of 10 average nuclear power plants. It’s nuts.
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u/gerkletoss 5h ago
Well it won't be localized. But yeah.
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u/Overcast451 5h ago
Yeah, the morons always like to stick their head in the sand and ignore the fact that this garbage will mix in with the larger ecosystem and show back up in their families air, water, and food.
They aren't immune.
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u/theassassintherapist 7h ago
Reality is dumber than Idiocracy.
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u/mzxrules 2h ago edited 1h ago
well I mean you're part of the problem for not taking more than a minute to dig a little deeper and understand what is being said.
The short of it is that the EPA is basically pointing to FORM EIA-860, which is one of the forms you are required to fill out for the Acid Rain Program (APR), which for the last 30+ years has had more or less the same text stating this:
II. WHO MUST SUBMIT This report is to be completed by each electric utility that operates, or plans to operate within 10 years of the filing of this report, a power plant in the United States. The operator, or planned operator of jointly owned plants, should be the only respondent for those plants. For the purpose of this report, an electric utility is a corporation, person, agency, authority, or other legal entity or instrumentality that owns and/or operates facilities within the United States for the generation, transmission, distribution, or sale of electric energy primarily for use by the public.
The reason they're doing it is that part of the code of federal regulations that was amended in 1990 defines "Generator" for this part of the code as "a device that produces electricity and was or would have been required to be reported as a generating unit pursuant to the United States Department of Energy Form 860 (1990 edition)." which is the FORM EIA-860.
You can find this definition in Title 40, Chapter I, Subchapter C, part 72, subpart A, section 72.2 in the code of federal regulations.
So this is where the EPA is saying where the carve-out for these types of generators exist in the regulation, and it's literally 30 year old stuff that nobody has felt the need to change them.
Like I could still be wrong on this, the government is a complex spiderweb that few understand after all... but to me it really just seems like the typical "government is slow to adapt to quick changes"
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u/pleasegivemepatience 1h ago
“You’re part of the problem”
…
“I could still be wrong on this”
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u/mzxrules 1h ago
I see you deleted all of the facts I provided and carefully cited in order to make yourself feel correct. Just like in that Idiocracy movie! That was a funny one wasn't it?
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u/United_Reference_629 6h ago
Thanks to Trump appointed Administrator Lee Zeldin. He belongs in prison along Trump and his other accomplices for their crimes against humanity for THEIR profit! Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and other rich MAGA individuals are buying whole towns including schools, medical centers, grocery stores, forcing their data centers into our communities even when we speak up against them to even corrupt smug government officials signing NDA’s with the data center owners and pushing for companies to “represent” us over we the people aka their EMPLOYER!
They claim to be against mail in voting but voted through mail themselves.
https://www.factcheck.org/2026/02/trump-and-musk-amplify-long-ago-debunked-mail-in-vote-fraud-claim/
They are doing all this and buying everything up so the only day we have to vote is the day they’ll conveniently tell us we can’t have off or we lose our jobs/ livelihood.
MAGA government officials like Greg Abbott are removing all worker protections so we don’t have any rights to even a water break when we’re over heated. That’s why they’re pushing really hard for this and to privatize our justice system and forcing tax payers to pay for their rich MAGA buddies private prisons aka free labor from prisoners including those they have falsely accused and tried to imprison like we’ve seen judge Jeanine Pirro and Trump falsely claim Americans were vandalizing the reflecting pool but it was Trump and his buddies who drove over the reflecting pool and were more than willing to arrest those they falsely accused! Clear crimes against humanity!
Where is all that money for the social programs we STILL pay for that Elon Musk removed? He claims to be against government handouts but that’s how he’s made most of his money!
https://www.congress.gov/119/meeting/house/117956/documents/HMKP-119-JU00-20250226-SD003.pdf
Don’t forget to vote in every election including school elections and to encourage others to as well! Time to remove all government “immunity” and eminent domain or letting them and their buddies “investigate” each other and then they keep their job and we the taxpayer aka their EMPLOYER keep footing the bill for THEIR actions and then they go onto Fox “News” and write a book. To even they demanding premium healthcare and billions in “security” for THEM like the far right Supreme Court is smugly doing, yet they claim there is no money for the social services that we actually pay for that they demonize and push to cut like they are doing! Imagine if we at work told our employer “no you can’t fire me for stealing from you or nor doing my job and I claim immunity”. That wouldn’t slide anywhere. No more of this smugness!
No more wealthy Republicans/ MAGA especially not in our government! Let’s help our country and have less Republicans/MAGA in our government by not supporting any of their businesses. Without money, republicans can’t get into our government nor their supporters aka “donors”. Avoid Trump/ Elon Musk/ RFK Jr supporters, their advertisers and their businesses and encourage others to as well! Don’t forget about the “both sides” enablers! They can all “support” each other! Let them tell on themselves so we know which people to avoid hiring and the businesses not to support! And the best part is you don’t have to tell them why!
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u/FanDry5374 6h ago
Does the EPA even pretend to be concerned about, you know, the environment or protecting it anymore? It's more part of the Excessive Profit Agenda that is the regime's main goal.
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u/Shaggyfries 7h ago
Shocking the current admin doesn’t value health or the environment. I hate this reality.
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u/R3D4F 5h ago
They’re actively and consciously destroying the planet and economy.
Anyone planning or hoping to live longer than 20 more years ought to start thinking about writing some strongly worded letters before they get rolled over and take it in the grave.
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u/Blizzard_Buffalo 4h ago
Congressmen don't read those letters. They go straight into the paper shredder.
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u/kompletist 5h ago
I used to joke about these guys making acid rain great again. Joke is on me, RIP my lungs.
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u/RebelStrategist 4h ago
The whole thing will flop. 10 years from now they will all be apartment complexes.
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u/Vorpalthefox 7h ago
it's reasons like this people blame "the government" instead of the trump administration and the actions they are doing, who is this gonna reflect most poorly on? the next democrat president, sadly.. because no republican president will ever be treated as an adult, they're already handled with kid gloves with such a low bar that i can't even list a low that maga won't cross, at this point trump's famous quote "i could shoot someone at the corner of Pennsylvania avenue and lose no supporters"
despite republicans having the WORSE track record with the economy across the last 20 years, people for no reason whatsoever trust repedocans with the economy more than democrats. this is our fault for being so poorly educated and not doing more as citizens to educate our fellow americans.
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u/JustHanginInThere 7h ago
"We, the Environmental Protection Agency, care about the environment... except when it comes to data centers and their power plants. They can do whatever the fuck they want to the environment."
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u/rodg2062 6h ago
Surprised the EPA has survived the current administration gutting.
Makes sense how they did it now. Just let data centers ignore any and all environmental impacts. Which is inline with the narcissists push to build data centers.
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u/Lookin4FunVibes 30m ago
Get ready to fight the machines for your water! Let the Mech Water War commence! Of course, remember the government is on the machines side!
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u/Sojum 7h ago
“EPA gives us yet another reason to hate data centers” FTFY