MAHA activists urge Trump against promoting coal to power energy-hungry AI data centers

Reported by ABC News. The paragraphs below are the opening of that article, reproduced word for word — not a summary, and not the whole piece.

Nearly 200 activists in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s “Make America Healthy Again” movement are criticizing President Donald Trump's promotion of coal to power artificial intelligence data centers

NEW YORK -- Nearly 200 activists in Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s “Make America Healthy Again” movement are criticizing President Donald Trump's promotion of coal to fuel the rise of artificial intelligence data centers , according to a letter sent Friday.

The letter, signed by at least two former staffers from Kennedy's 2024 presidential campaign, marks the first major MAHA movement mobilization over fossil fuels and the latest in a series of rifts between the diverse group of activists and the Trump administration over environmental policy.

The letter to Trump, Kennedy and various other Cabinet officials, first obtained by The Associated Press, laments a 2025 executive order that aimed to boost coal to power data centers over pollution concerns and asks the administration to consider renewable options, including solar and geothermal energy.

“We understand the importance of American leadership in artificial intelligence, national security, innovation, and economic growth,” the letter reads. “But American AI leadership should not come at the cost of a more toxic burden for American children.”

In response, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers noted that greenhouse gas emissions dropped to a 30-year low during Trump's first term and said Trump “was given a mandate to roll back the radical climate policies that are burning a hole through taxpayers' wallets.”