Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
Agency
Department of Environmental Quality
 
Board
Air Pollution Control Board
 
Guidance Document Change: DEQ Guidance Memo APG-578 addresses the use of emergency generators in the case of “sudden and reasonably unforeseeable events” as the result of a planned electric outage.
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12/3/25  8:16 am
Commenter: Anonymous

Impact on air quality
 

The general consensus among Virginians is that they do not wish to live near data centers for a variety of reasons including concerns about the impact on air quality. The use of emergency generators would have further impacts on air quality for local communities beyond what regular data center operations are causing. Because there are alternate routes to secure power that do not decrease air quality as much as emergency generators, those routes should be used and not the emergency generators. 

CommentID: 238324