The Trump Administration’s Data Center Push Could Open the Door for New Forever Chemicals

In response to questions on its two-phase cooling products from WIRED, including whether or not the company planned to submit chemicals for fast-tracked consideration under the administration’s new data center exemption, Chemours spokesperson Cassie Olszewski said the company is “in the process of commercializing our two-phase immersion cooling fluid, which will require relevant regulatory approvals.”

“Our work in this area has been focused on developing more sustainable and efficient cooling solutions that would allow data centers to consume less energy, water, and footprint while effectively managing the increasing amount of heat generated by the next generation of chips with higher processing power,” Olszewski said.

These chips could also be a significant source of new chemicals. Both Schweer and Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz, a lawyer at environmental nonprofit Earthjustice, say that the semiconductor industry, which produces the chips that provide the computing power in data centers, stands to gain significantly from the expedited review process. The semiconductor manufacturing process uses forever chemicals at multiple different points of production, including in the crucial photolithography process, which uses light to transfer patterns to the surface of silicon wafers.

Schweer says that in his last few years working at the EPA, this industry submitted a large number of applications for new chemicals. Kalmuss-Katz says that semiconductor manufacturers “are a main driver of new chemicals.”

“The administration has this kind of AI-at-all-costs mindset, where you’re rushing to build more and more data centers and chip fabs without any meaningful plan for dealing with their climate impacts, their natural resource impacts, and the toxic substances that are being used and released from these new facilities,” he says.

Lobbying documents show that the semiconductor industry has been asking for changes this year to the EPA’s new-chemicals program. In March, Nancy Beck, a former policy director for an industry lobbyist group who now leads the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, the office that oversees new chemical reviews, met with representatives from SEMI, a global advocacy organization for the industry. The meeting was initially organized to discuss the “EPA’s approach to regulations on PFAS and other chemicals that are essential to semiconductor manufacturing,” according to emails obtained by WIRED via a Freedom of Information Act request. Emails show that Beck suggested during the meeting that the lobbying group follow up with a public comment in support of changes to the new chemicals program, which the group sent over the next month in a letter. (“The Trump EPA encourages stakeholders to submit and document their comments on proposed rules so that we get a diverse array of perspectives,” says Hirsch, the EPA spokesperson.)