RE: APG-578 - Sudden and Reasonably Unforeseeable Events in the
Context of Planned Electric Outages: As a native Virginian, graduate of George Mason University, and now a retiree living in the Commonwealth, I urge you NOT to expand the allowable use of diesel emergency generators. Loosening the restrictions on the use of these massive-sized generators is a green light for the data center industry to cause irreversible, unstoppable, and devastating pollution throughout the Commonwealth. What APG-578 proposes will first have an immediate and deleterious impact on our vulnerable families where zonings have allowed data centers to co-exist side-by-side with the communities in which they live, learn, play and breathe. Second, it is well-known throughout the Virginia legislature, Dominion and PJM that the power grid in Virginia is strained and unable to provide the power required by already appoved data center campuses that have yet to be built. By expanding the allowable use of any “emergency use” generators, most especially Tier 2, DEQ will open the door for further approval of data centers that have NO viable source of power - data centers that will regularly rely on these generators causing significant air and noise pollution, degrading the quality of life for our citizenry to an intolerable degree. The APG-578 proposal is NOT a solution but rather a Pandora’s box. The pollution impacts will be only the beginning; the ripple effect of devaluation of our homes, our tourism, our lands and the loss of quiet enjoyment of this beautiful state for generations to follow will be of an untold magnitude. Is this the legacy you wish to leave as a policy-maker? I ask you - STOP, CONSIDER, and Do NOT approve APG-578; Do NOT sell out our state to the financial gain of data center developers; Do NOT naively believe the uncertain revenue from data centers is worth the cost of our environment and our humanity. We can do better. Virginians deserve better. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of this seminal decision.