Dear Coalition Friends and Supporters,
(This is long. Please read it all because we’re going to share with you on Monday a list of projects planned for Prince William County.)
We have a secret to tell. Back in early 2022, there was a private zoom call that included key leadership from both PWCA and the Coalition to Protect PWC, and a data center executive team. NOT QTS or Compass, and NOT associated with the Digital Gateway.
Here is what we made very clear during that call. If QTS and Compass persisted with the Digital Gateway project, there would be a backlash. And that backlash would envelope the entire data center industry. We weren’t sure exactly HOW we would make this prediction come true, but we knew that to beat back the greed and power, as Kim Hosen, founder and executive director of PWCA said, “This fight would have to take on a life of its own.”
Virginia’s Data Center Boom Faces Growing Community Backlash
What happened to the Digital Gateway and what does it mean for the broader debate?
“The Digital Gateway — proposed as the world’s largest data center campus, near Manassas Battlefield National Park — was voided by Virginia courts on procedural grounds. Compass Datacenters withdrew entirely. QTS filed a last-minute appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court. The case has become a national model for community data center opposition, demonstrating that legal process, sustained organizing, and persistent litigation can defeat even the largest proposed projects.”
7 in 10 Americans oppose data centers being built in their communities – The Washington Post
Americans Oppose AI Data Centers in Their Area – Gallup
“Overcoming this opposition stands as a major hurdle in the expansion of AI computing,” Gallup said in its polling memo. “The intensity of opposition means that proposed data centers are likely to spur grassroots activism from local residents as well as legal challenges.”
Gallup found that Americans worry the data centers will degrade the environment and threaten resources, such as water and electricity.
We began the long slog of exposing the truth about this industry in 2014, and we haven’t stopped. Because the stakes are simply too high.
The lack of accountability and oversight, for an industry that takes too much power, too much water, and too much land will go down in the history books as THE biggest threat to our individual freedoms, in ways that few understood at the time.
What is increasingly clear, is that the AI buildout itself IS the threat to our national security.
To meet these resource demands, the utility industries, both water and power, will have to make choices on who pays for their unprecedented power and water demands, and who gets access first.
WHO, and WHAT, are our elected leaders willing to sacrifice to fulfill the needs of this one entity?
While QTS Data Centers – soley owned by Blackstone – has the spotlight on them for digging wells and hooking up to public water utilities under very questionable circumstances, the possible impacts to millions of Americans continue to accumulate.
Here’s the list of the growing threats and impacts.
- Electricity – reliable and affordable – Eye-Popping Electric Bills Come Due as Price of AI Revolution – Newsweek Watchdog group issues highest possible alert over data center impact on power grid
- Water – quality and quantity – A data center drained 30M gallons of water unnoticed — until residents complained about low water pressure – POLITICO A data center drained 30M gallons of water unnoticed — until residents complained about low water pressure – POLITICO $750M Iowa Data Center’s Unpermitted Wells Draw $20K Fine against Dewatering Contractor | Engineering News-Record
- Air Pollution – Diesel generators are now utilized as back up generation during peak load time and transmission grid build out, putting pollutants directly into our air – Vantage Diesel Generators – Video – The Coalition to Protect Prince William County
- Noise Pollution – fans running 24/7 to cool the servers inside – ‘Living in Hell’: Data Center Neighbors Grapple With Noise, Air Pollution | National News | U.S. News
- Onsite Gas Generation – more noise, more land – because there is a 7-10 year wait for power due to data center load demand, now communities suffer – Vantage Gas Turbines – Video – The Coalition to Protect Prince William County
- Substations – more noise, more land – The nexus for transmission lines –NOVEC’s 300-megawatt Diamond Hill substation sent back to Prince William Planning Commission due to faulty advertising – InsideNoVa
- Transmission Lines – more land, effects on all nearby living beings – These electrical highways are becoming monstrosities growing from the 230kV to 500kV, and now the first ever 765kV through our region. They destroy open space and because public utilities have the right to exercise eminent domain, they are taking the private property of hundreds and hundreds of Virginians An Electric Super-Highway Through the Piedmont – The Piedmont Environmental Council
The above impacts are not just about money and quality of life “nuisances.” These are all health risks, and the CUMULATIVE IMPACTS HAVE NOT BEEN ASSESSED.
EVERY DAY the news gets worse. Our public utility grids are facing risk of collapse. By that, we mean, they can’t serve the unprecedented amount of power demands that the data center industry is triggering, which could result in blackouts. Nor can people afford the skyrocketing electricity purchase rates. More than one state has threatened to remove themselves from the PJM 13-state regional grid network, which means they REMOVE their generation contribution to the network as well (Ohio and Pennsylvania).
Why should you care? Your electricality bill sure does notice: PJM Power Prices Up 76% From Data Centers: CRE Guide
In pivotal move, PJM puts new power market designs on the table – E&E News by POLITICO
“Those choices belong to the people and institutions with democratic accountability for their consequences — to state regulators and legislatures, to FERC, to consumers and the advocates who represent them,” Mills wrote. “PJM’s role is to ensure those choices are made clearly, not to substitute our judgment for theirs.”
“PJM’s high-powered transmission system delivers electricity across a region stretching from Chicago to North Carolina. It includes Virginia’s Data Center Alley, a growing hub home to roughly one-quarter of U.S. data centers. Some energy experts warn data center clusters are straining the regional grid and risking blackouts.”
“PJM is scrambling to secure new power generation to meet projected demand, with a shortage coming as soon as 2027. But prices for its key mechanism for doing that — the capacity market — are now capped after the White House and state officials led by Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro pushed for price controls after a sharp increase led to billions of dollars in costs flowing into household utility bills starting last summer.”
What does all this mean???? It means there is not enough juice for the data center power demand squeeze. So, what DOES THAT MEAN? Skyrocketing bills and possible blackouts – for us.
https://youtu.be/MEFp-FV7rqA?si=8qgxjM6jgInPiAZ6
How do OUR local leaders play a role? How does VIRGINIA play a role?
We need to help the people with THE most power, OUR elected leaders, find TWO letters.
JUST TWO!
N + O = NO
No more substations.
No more data centers.
NO MORE until our grid, our air, and our water are no longer at risk of degradation due to ONE industry.
The urgency to act is now.
YOU who are reading this can make a difference. And it isn’t through social media.
YOU need to send letters to your Board of Supervisors and tell them their votes are not happening in a silo. THEY are directly contributing to this growing county, state, and national crisis with every vote to approve a data center and even a substation.
Aren’t sure who to write to? Go here CONTACT LISTS – The Coalition to Protect Prince William County – look for Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission email addresses.
Aren’t sure what the issues are?
READ your Coalition emails. READ the local newspapers.
There are no longer any bystanders or observers from afar. NONE OF US are insulated from these threats.
YOU have to decide that YOU are not going to wait for the lights to go out or wait for your water and electric bill to double and triple, or wait for the data centers and all their associated energy infrastructure to show up in your back yard before you finally act.
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