Climate activists speak out against the unchecked growth of data centers
Dozens of environmental activists took part in a rally June 2 in Reston to push for more state and local action to pause the out-of-control expansion of data centers.
The event was organized by the Sierra Club’s Virginia Chapter to highlight “the harmful economic and environmental consequences of explosive data center growth.”
That growth “poses serious threats to economic security, air and water quality, land use, and the state’s climate goals,” the Sierra Club charges. Data centers consume an enormous amount of electricity and water.
The Fairfax County Planning Commission is scheduled to consider proposed zoning changes on June 5 that would impose some restrictions on data centers, but the activists say they don’t go far enough.
Related story: New restrictions proposed for data centers
Tyler Ray, a Bren Mar Park resident who organized his neighbors to mobilize against a proposed data center at the Plaza 500 industrial park on Edsall Road, called for better protections for residents and communities.
Fairfax County Board Chair Jeffrey McKay previously said the board will set the “gold standard for data center protections nationwide,” Ray said. But what is currently proposed is “giving residents fool’s gold.”
Ray urged the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors to strengthen the proposed rules by:
- Requiring all data center developers to apply for a zoning special exception. (The proposed rule changes would allow data centers by-right in certain commercial and industrial districts unless they exceed specified size standards. By-right projects don’t require a zoning change or a public hearing.)
- Requiring a minimum setback from residential areas of at least 1,000 feet from homes. (The proposed rule change would allow by-right data centers within 200 feet of residential communities.)
- Immediately acting to address the issues not included in the proposed rules on noise, energy demand, the siting of electrical substations, and the discharge of wastewater.
Tyler spoke about how the Bren Mar Park community won a battle against a rezoning proposal by Starwood Capital Group for a data center at Plaza 500 in 2022. Starwood withdrew the proposal after learning the Planning Commission was going to reject it. Former Planning Commission Julie Strandlie was prepared to make a motion to deny the application. She was later replaced by someone who works for data centers.
This year, Starwood submitted a site plan for a by-right 466,000-square-foot data center on the part of Plaza 500 zoned I-5. Dominion Energy is planning to build a massive electrical substation on the property to serve the data center.
Related story: Bren Mar Park residents urge the BoS to act against a by-right data center
“We need sensible guardrails to protect our children, to protect our families, to protect our communities,” said Del. Josh Thomas, who represents Prince William County, where the major growth of data center development is fueling a surge of opposition.
“We are not going to let our community be destroyed,” said Karen Sheehan of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County, That group has been fighting against the massive Digital Gateway technology corridor which will have 37 data centers.
“We have a broken system,” Sheehan said. The Prince William County Board of Supervisors approved the Digital Gateway in December without adequate data on energy use, air pollution, water usage, and climate impacts, she said.
A judge dismissed a lawsuit against the Prince William board over the Digital Gateway last month, but two other suits against the project are pending.
Del. Rip Sullivan of McLean told the crowd that the expansion of data centers would go against the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which passed in 2020 and calls for making the state’s electric grid carbon-free by 2050.
Dozens of data center bills were proposed in the General Assembly during the current term but all were referred to the Joint Legislative Audit Review Commission to conduct a study on the impact of data centers and propose policy recommendations.
The Sierra Club urges localities to pause data center approvals until the JLARC study is released and legislators implement protections.
“Data centers are contributing to global warming and climate change because of the huge amounts of energy that they use,” said Rev. Jean Wright, a founder of Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions. A single data center can take up as much land as three super Walmarts, leading to deforestation, she said.
Other groups represented at the rally included the Prince William Conservation Alliance, the Sierra Club’s Great Falls Group, the Piedmont Environmental Council, Third Act Virginia, and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
Virginia is the data center capital of the world, with over 300 operational and new data centers proposed across the commonwealth, the Sierra Club reports.
At least 14 of the proposed data centers would require more than a gigawatt of power. That’s enough electricity to serve 750,000 homes. The energy needed to power a data center supporting the artificial intelligence industry is three to seven times as much as a traditional data center.
And while data centers offer significant tax revenue to budget-challenged localities, the need to serve their huge demands for electricity will lead to soaring electric bills for residents and the construction of new fossil fuel plants.
5 responses to “Climate activists speak out against the unchecked growth of data centers”
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Don’t like data centers that are near civilization – but none of these virtue signaling people give up their internet. Second, these same people think the Country can be powered by wind and solar and that they can cool the planet – that’s why I don’t care about these people or their agenda -they are clueless…. clean air and water -yes – dumb agendas no…
Mark, AI data centers are not necessary for internet access. The explosive demand is another example of overpromising while underdelivering by the tech industry. If nothing is done to stop them, it’s Virginia’s families left holding the bag. I’m proud that some of my neighbors are willing to speak out against this issue instead of trolling in the article’s comment section.
It shouldn’t be an either or proposition of internet or data centers. Yes, data centers are needed for the internet, but they don’t need to be 200 ft. from civilization. But that is exactly what is happening and without the public pushing the county to act they are saying it’s ok for them to be near civilization. The pending county recommendations would allow massive data centers 200 ft. from residents and 1/2 mile from metros which are major hubs for residents and mixed use development.
How would you go about raising concerns for this issue without efforts like these that raise the publics awareness and put pressure on our elected officials to act in order to ensure data centers don’t impact your clean air and water and aren’t placed near civilization?
I hope you will come to the Planning Commission hearing on Wednesday night and let them know that you don’t want data centers near civilization or impacting your clean air and water. That’s not virtue signaling that’s putting your money where you mouth is. https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/planningcommission/sites/planningcommission/files/Assets/calendar/2024/6.5.24.pdf
Attend and Sign-Up to Speak at the 7:00 pm, June 5 Planning Commission Public Hearing on Data Center Amendments to the Zoning Ordinance. The hearing is in the Board Auditorium, Fairfax County Government Center, 12000 Government Center Pkwy., Fairfax, VA 22035. Speaker Sign-Up (under application name put “Data Center Zoning Ordinance”). https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/planningcommission/speaker
You can also record a video or call-in (see Ways to Provide Testimony).
Many Americans seem to think this nation can outsource everything they don’t like and what they consider “dirty” outside the USA, or at least outside of the places they spend any time.
Things like industrial level manufacturing; mining; fossil fuel production; the transportation of fossil fuels through pipeline, rail cars or trucks; the building of solar panels; the trashing or recycling of solar panels; the building and installation of gigantic Bald Eagle killing windmills; the dumping of these massive windmills once they no longer work in massive garbage dumps; the gigantic data centers that power the Internet, social media platforms, and the so-called Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution.
In addition, a significant percentage if not a majority of Americans truly think that fossil fuel use can be ended (net zero); wind, solar, and “renewable” (not nuclear plants) will be built to power all of America’s current and future energy needs; and all the additional electronic transmission infrastructure and hardening will be built to support America’s conversion to electric vehicles, and even more data centers to power the AI revolution; all within the next decade.
People who think this way are going to be disappointed. The question is whether the disappointment will come to them all at once like a load of bricks, or slowly over time, like the slow drip drip drip of water torture.
The data centers do not need to be located near anybody – they could put them in the middle of nowhere. Climate-wise, it’s tricky to site them because mainly what they need is cooling. (So in a sunny dessert where you can get all that solar power, at least much of the time, it might be a net negative because of all the air-conditioning. And maybe you could put them in the ocean and use tidal energey, but you’ll totally screw up the ecology with the massive heat discharge.) The only reason those data centers are here is because we have the power infrastructure available, and we have run so much of the Internet’s data cabling to this central place.
But they could certainly put them at abandoned former shopping malls or industrial areas, or on some former farmland or something, nowhere near people. Someone would have to pay for the massive electrical, Internet, and water cooling infrastructure to go there, though.
In other words, this is all about money. And most of the “climate” protestors are actually NIMB “property value” protestors. And they have a perfectly valid point. You don’t want these monsters in your neighborhood, let alone in your backyard.