Environmental groups have already launched legal challenges.

The Trump administration signaled plans to aggressively accelerate construction of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers by opening federal lands to massive technology campuses and fast-tracking environmental approvals.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) last week announced it will convert the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky into a $100 billion AI data center campus powered by 2 gigawatts of natural gas generation and 2.6 gigawatts of battery storage.

The project is the third former Cold War nuclear site the administration has targeted for AI development this year.

"The U.S. government is leveraging its assets — like our federal lands — to add power generation, create jobs, and ensure the United States wins the AI race," U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in announcing the Kentucky project.

In July 2025, President Donald Trump issued a sweeping executive order to dramatically accelerate federal permitting for AI data centers and the energy infrastructure needed to support them.

According to the fact sheet released with the order, the U.S. must remove regulatory barriers if it wants to remain globally competitive in the AI race and protect U.S. economic and national security.

Environmental groups launch legal challenges

This is the second executive order promoting AI Trump has signed. The first was in 2019.

"My Administration has inaugurated a golden age for American manufacturing and technological dominance," Trump said in the order, which includes substantial reductions in environmental regulations and makes federal land and resources available for data center construction.

But the administration's approach is already facing legal challenges from environmental organizations and local governments. They argue that federal agencies are bypassing environmental review and limiting opportunities for public input.

A lawsuit over a proposed AI data center on public land near Boulder City, Nevada, is expected to become a test of how far the administration can go in accelerating AI development without violating longstanding environmental laws, Newsweek reported.

A recent Gallup poll found that 7 in 10 Americans oppose constructing AI data centers in their local area and nearly half would "strongly oppose" a new data center in their neighborhood. Noise, pollution, energy and water usage, and higher costs of living top their list of concerns.

In the first quarter of 2026, at least 75 data center projects worth about $130 billion were delayed or shot down by local opposition — "the largest single-quarter concentration" of disrupted projects — according to Data Center Watch, a project by the AI research firm 10a Labs.