House energy committee eyes reusing abandoned industrial sites for AI data centers

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is examining how to reuse abandoned industrial sites for data centers that support artificial intelligence, under a longstanding federal program for cleaning up the contaminated properties referred to as brownfields.

The initiative could open up a new opportunity for the tech industry, which is struggling to build out the infrastructure to support the growth of AI, by offering a streamlined permitting process and eased environmental cleanup requirements.

The federal brownfields program overseen by the...