By: Patrice Tomcik, Senior National Field Director
Date: May 28, 2026
About: Revision to “Begin Actual Construction” in the New Source Review Preconstruction Permitting Program, Docket # EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0618
To: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
My name is Patrice Tomcik, and I am the Senior National Field Director for Moms Clean Air Force, a community of more than 1.6 million parents and caregivers working to protect children’s health from air pollution, climate change, and toxic chemicals. I live in Southwest Pennsylvania, where communities are already living with the impacts of fossil fuel development.
On behalf of Moms Clean Air Force and the families we work with across the country, I strongly oppose EPA’s proposed changes to the definition of “begin actual construction” under the New Source Review (NSR) permitting program.
The Clean Air Act’s preconstruction permitting requirements exist for a reason: communities deserve the opportunity to understand and respond to the impacts of major new pollution sources before construction moves forward. EPA’s proposal would weaken that safeguard by allowing companies to undertake significant site development activities before obtaining permits designed to protect public health and ensure public accountability.
As a mother living in a community with fracked gas wells, I have seen firsthand how industrial development can affect communities and create lasting concerns about air pollution, health, traffic, and quality of life. I am deeply concerned about the growing number of industrial projects being proposed across the region, including gas processing facilities, fossil fuel-powered data centers, and petrochemical facilities that all rely on fracked gas from wells drilled in communities like mine. Families living near these developments deserve meaningful opportunities to understand the cumulative health and environmental impacts before construction begins—not after projects are already financially and politically entrenched.
Site preparation and other early construction activities are not insignificant steps. They represent major financial and logistical commitments that can create enormous pressure to approve projects regardless of unresolved pollution concerns or community opposition. Once visible construction is underway and millions of dollars have been invested, public participation risks becoming little more than a procedural formality.
Labeling activities such as excavation, grading, foundation work, and site infrastructure development as “non-emitting” minimizes the real pollution burdens associated with large-scale construction projects. These activities can generate substantial particulate matter, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from diesel-powered equipment, truck traffic, and earthmoving operations — pollution that nearby families and communities may be exposed to before they have any meaningful opportunity to participate in the permitting process.
The NSR process serves an essential public health function by evaluating whether new or modified facilities would worsen local air quality or add to cumulative pollution burdens in communities already impacted by industrial emissions. It also allows regulators and communities to evaluate alternatives and pollution controls before substantial financial investments make changes far less likely.
This proposal is especially concerning because many facilities likely to benefit from these changes—including fossil fuel-powered data centers, petrochemical facilities, and other industrial infrastructure—are often proposed in low-income communities and communities of color already overburdened by pollution. These communities already experience elevated rates of asthma, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other pollution-related health harms.
According to the American Lung Association’s 2026 State of the Air report, nearly half of children in the United States already live in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution. Families deserve the opportunity to understand and respond to potential new pollution sources before construction begins—not after projects are already underway.
The NSR program is one of the few tools communities have to evaluate major pollution sources before they are effectively locked in. Weakening preconstruction review undermines the intent of the Clean Air Act, limits meaningful public participation, and reduces critical protections for communities already facing disproportionate pollution burdens.
EPA should reject this proposal and preserve strong preconstruction permitting protections that prioritize public health, transparency, and meaningful community participation.