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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11/19/25  10:13 am
Commenter: concerned in Albemarle County

Profit for the few = Pollution for all
 

DEQ should not allow the emergency generator allowance to be broadened to include planned outage events. This will create avoidable dirty air and noise pollution. I do not - yet- live near a data center (proposals are on the table), but I care about the people who are most directly impacted. And I care a whole lot about having to shoulder any of the costs of these data centers, which make money for some of the richest companies on the planet while shifting costs to the general public. If AI is so smart, the data center operators should use it to reduce pollution and expense, not to fuel more and more consumption. We want to DEQ to protect us, the taxpayers and citizens - the big guys seem to do just fine.

CommentID: 237743