By: Vanessa Lynch, Pennsylvania Campaign Coordinator
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 Vanessa Lynch, and I am the Pennsylvania Campaign Coordinator for Moms Clean Air Force with over 107,000 members in the commonwealth. I work and live in southwest Pennsylvania with my family and two children in a community with a fracked well. I strongly oppose EPA's proposal to redefine "begin actual construction." This proposal would let polluters begin construction on major new pollution sources, like power plants and data centers, before communities have a voice—putting children's health at risk and making it nearly impossible to stop harmful facilities once construction has begun.
A recent Pittsburgh Business Times article outlined the 10 largest proposals for data centers in the greater Pittsburgh region. The article included up to an estimated 20 GWs of proposed new fossil fuel fired power plants co-located with these data centers. These power plant proposals would have a huge impact on the air our children breathe in Pennsylvania as they would emit large amounts of air pollution. From NOx to PM 2.5 to volatile organic compounds—we know air pollution increases respiratory disease, heart disease, and negatively impacts birth outcomes.
Add to that the reality that a recent report from the Better Data Center Project found 99% of backup power for data centers in Virginia is supplied by diesel, and the impacts of allowing these projects to all begin without safeguards around community impacts and an analysis of the necessity of the project could be catastrophic for our region. Diesel pollution is considered by the EPA a likely cause of cancer. Diesel pollution is also linked to increased risks of respiratory and heart disease, and we know children and the elderly are at the highest risk of health impacts.
Pittsburgh is a city in recovery from an industrial past that produced gray daylight skies where streetlights were necessary. My grandfather would tell the story of how he would go to work in a white button down shirt and come home in a gray one. He died from heart disease after two quadruple bypasses. Pennsylvania’s families deserve to have a voice in proposals in our communities. And as the data center and power plant proposals that are being suggested in our region begin to move from proposed to actual, we deserve to be able to make sure robust air pollution protections are in place.