The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is aligning itself with President Donald Trump’s push for American dominance in artificial intelligence (AI), with Deputy Administrator David Fotouhi declaring that winning the global AI race is “not optional.” Speaking at a Breitbart News policy event in Washington, DC, Fotouhi emphasized how the agency is working to support AI development while safeguarding environmental resources.
Fotouhi outlined a twofold approach: enabling external infrastructure growth to support AI and internally adopting AI to improve agency efficiency. “Data centers that will power the AI revolution require significant base load power and significant amounts of water,” he noted. To meet those needs, the EPA is examining how to reduce regulatory burdens that hinder power generation investment and is updating its water reuse action plan to limit groundwater depletion.
The Trump administration has made AI a national security priority. In July, the White House released a 23-page “America’s AI Action Plan,” calling for unmatched global technological dominance. “AI is the first digital service in modern life that challenges America to build vastly greater energy generation than we have today,” the plan stated, warning that China is accelerating toward AI supremacy.
A report from the Center for Security Policy echoed those concerns, labeling AI the new “cold war” and warning that Communist China is poised to control both the hardware and software driving AI globally. “If the Communist Party of China dominates… it will succeed in relegating the United States to a second-rate power,” the report cautioned.
Internally, the EPA is deploying AI to manage data, streamline permitting, and multiply the impact of existing staff. Fotouhi stressed that implementation is measured and methodical: “We’re not just sort of rolling anything out before we’ve proven the concept.”
