By: Cynthia Palmer, Senior Analyst, Petrochemicals
Date: July 22, 2026
About: Docket No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-1212-0001
To: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Good morning, I’m Cynthia Palmer, Senior Analyst for Petrochemicals at Moms Clean Air Force. I oppose EPA's plan to gut public participation requirements for so-called “minor source” New Source Review.
This proposal could allow new or expanding AI data centers, petrochemical facilities, and other toxic enterprises to quietly move into communities without even notifying residents. EPA is seeking to remove requirements that have been in place for decades—replacing a critical democratic backstop with a discretionary option at the hands of state or local officials.
Public notice of proposed NSR permits is often the only means people have to alert them that a new air pollution source is moving into their community. The process gives people a chance to weigh in before the polluter locks us into decades of added health risk.
EPA says that regulators should be free to skip the “burden” of public input for these “minor” sources. We beg to differ. There is nothing trivial or inconsequential about the pollution from so-called minor sources, be it
- the ethylene oxide and benzene from petrochemical facilities,
- the particulates, formaldehyde, and PFAS from data centers,
- or the dioxins, cadmium, and lead from plastics pyrolysis incinerators and other heavy polluters.
Many of these pollutants are toxic in tiny quantities and are linked life-altering and life-ending conditions—such as cancers, asthma, ADHD, reproductive problems, and dementias. Public engagement can help ensure that steps are taken to protect our health.
Before I continue, I must acknowledge that I am speaking to you from a rogue state that has refused to implement the public participation requirements of minor source NSR. Virginia has been out of sync with the rules for the past 33 years, insisting that the requirements are discretionary and up to the State Air Board to determine if or when we ought to have a voice. In essence, Virginia has already done what EPA now plans for the entire country.
And has it worked?
We get to live in heavily polluted Data Center Alley, with hundreds of data centers moving in and incrementally expanding behind our backs. Most are permitted as minor or synthetic minor sources.
The lack of mandatory public hearings and comment periods has enabled these facilities to move in quickly and secretly, and to expand rapidly—now deploying more than 10,000 backup diesel generators in our state.
Let’s look at an example: the minor-source-permitted Vantage data center here in Northern Virginia. An independent study by a Harvard scientist looked at just one of the pollutants released, particulate matter 2.5, and found it could result in between $53 and $99 million per year in health-related damages, due to the increase in heart disease, stroke, respiratory illness, and premature death. There is nothing minor about the pollution from these so-called minor sources.
Rather than gut the public participation requirements, we urge you to keep the rules intact—and to actually enforce them. Thank you.