Our Platform
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To Protect Our Communities
Data centers must disclose anticipated impacts on communities before they’re approved, report fossil fuel backup use to state regulators, and provide strong, community-centered benefits agreements, and compensate communities impacted by data center infrastructure.
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To Protect Our Wallets
Data centers must be made wholly responsible for any costs associated with their growing energy demand and should not saddle taxpayers with lucrative breaks absent significant reforms.
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To Protect Our Air
Data centers must work toward achieving 100% clean energy, strengthen air permits, and fully disclose their emissions to state regulators.
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To Protect Our Water
Data centers must minimize their water use and offset any local water resources they use for cooling.
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To Protect Our Land
Data centers must avoid disrupting sensitive sites like prime agricultural land and wetlands. prime agricultural land, wetlands, forests, floodplains, places of historical and cultural significance, and high-value ecological habitats.
To Protect Our Communities
Data centers must be good neighbors and responsibly sited, protecting the human and environmental health of the communities they impact.
For larger projects, data centers must undergo a full public hearing process regardless of prior zoning approvals, eliminating so-called “by right” approval.
For larger projects, there must be a detailed health analysis conducted, including on cumulative impacts - the combined, long-term effects of environmental stressors.
Developers cannot hide behind non-disclosure agreements and must fully disclose data centers’ anticipated effects on communities, natural resources, air quality, and other associated impacts.
Data centers must report diesel backup generator use to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), which will alert the public and be able to restrict diesel use during air quality emergencies.
Virginia must accelerate its noise regulation designed for data centers, and promulgate a light pollution regulation.
Environmental justice concerns must be top of mind during development. Data centers should not receive financial incentives for locating in historically disadvantaged communities.
Data centers must provide strong, legally binding, community-centered benefits agreements.
Data centers should not be sited close to schools, playgrounds, community centers, or daycare facilities.
Data centers must develop proactive strategies for end-of-life decommissioning.
New standards on grid reliability must be developed to prevent data center-associated blackouts or excessive grid strain.
To Protect Our Wallets
Homeowners, small businesses, churches, schools, and other non-data center utility customers must be shielded from any data center-related increases in energy costs.
New standards on interconnection to the energy grid should be developed to protect our communities and Virginia’s clean energy transition.
Lawmakers must explore changes to current state-level tax exemptions to avoid giveaways to a billion-dollar industry absent reforms.
To Protect Our Air
Data centers must commit to achieving 100% clean energy and cannot rely on harmful “behind the meter” or onsite fossil fuel power sources.
New data centers must use backup generation that uses clean energy and does not contribute to local air pollution.
Strengthen air permits and limit the use of polluting backup generators.
The cumulative impact of any on-site or behind-the-meter polluting power sources must be subject to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, including at existing facilities.
Emissions monitoring by data centers must be mandatory, continuous, regularly reported electronically to DEQ, and publicly available.
State agencies must undertake forward-looking modeling that projects air quality impacts and trends.
To Protect Our Water
The public’s water needs must take precedence over data center needs - including in water scarcity areas and during drought events.
Data centers must minimize their water usage and consumption for cooling and power generation needs.
Data centers must replenish the water resources they use.
Data centers must treat their wastewater to remove harmful pollution, bacteria, and toxics and design sites to reduce stormwater discharges.
To Protect Our Land
Data centers must avoid negative impacts to sensitive sites like agricultural land, wetlands, forests, floodplains, places of historical and cultural significance, and high-value ecological habitats.
Data center projects must utilize sites that are next to support infrastructure like water collection, cooling, and energy facilities.
The industry must fully compensate local communities that host infrastructure primarily serving to accommodate data centers.