Under current law, companies must get air pollution permits before breaking ground on or expanding major industrial projects—from AI data centers to power plants to chemical facilities. This process gives people like me and you a voice in development that could lock our families and neighborhoods into decades of added health risks.
But earlier this month, EPA proposed a rule to strip us of this voice. It’s another deeply corrupt move by a reckless agency bent on prioritizing polluters over people. And it’s time to speak out.
Tell EPA: Families Deserve a Voice Before Polluters Break Ground
In my community in Virginia, the global hub for data center development, this means even more unchecked growth by Big Tech. We have 680 data centers planned, under construction, or operating in this state, literally hundreds of which are right down the road from me in Loudoun and Prince William Counties.
The data centers here are primarily powered by dirty methane gas, and some of them have been found to pollute even more than nearby gas power plants. These facilities spew vast amounts of soot, nitrogen oxides, formaldehyde, and other insidious air pollutants. And they are surrounded by neighborhoods full of family homes, schools, and parks.
The situation is already out of control. And now EPA wants to sabotage one of the few opportunities for input our communities still have over this aggressive expansion. They want to let developers excavate land and build foundations and site infrastructure without air pollution permits—without analysis of air quality impacts and without consideration of alternatives. But after millions are invested in this initial development, it will be near-impossible for communities to stop construction.
The air quality impacts of each of these facilities must be considered before construction because they could affect the health of hundreds of thousands of local children, including my own.
Join Moms in telling EPA that families oppose this effort to sabotage one of the only tools we have to speak out against polluting industry.
Read more about Moms’ work on data center pollution.
Tell EPA: Families Deserve a Voice Before Polluters Break Ground