Emails show how Virginia regulators downplayed data center health concerns
Internal emails reveal that the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) director, Michael Rolband, initiated a swift effort to discredit a report by the Piedmont Environmental Council that raised health concerns about air pollution from a Vantage Data Centers facility in Loudoun County. The DEQ's subsequent report, which echoed arguments from Vantage and was shared with industry groups, drew criticism from former officials and agency staff who felt the health assessment was outside their purview. This comes amid growing public and regulatory scrutiny over data centers' energy demands and environmental impacts in Virginia.
Internal emails obtained by POLITICO reveal that Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) moved quickly to downplay health concerns raised by an environmental group regarding a data center's pollution. DEQ Director Michael Rolband received a report from the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) in March, which highlighted potential health impacts from eight natural gas turbines at a Vantage Data Centers facility in Loudoun County, operating under permits granted by DEQ itself. Rolband promptly forwarded the report to his air permitting staff, instructing them to find flaws in its analysis, with some staff members expressing that assessing health effects was outside their expertise.
The PEC report, which utilized publicly available data, estimated that the facility's soot pollution could cause tens of millions in annual health costs and multiple premature deaths if it emitted at maximum permitted levels. Following Rolband's directive, DEQ issued its own report a month later, which former DEQ director Robert Burnley called "unusual" and "editorializing," arguing it went beyond the agency's mandate to simply verify permit compliance. The DEQ's report reportedly echoed arguments made by Vantage and was subsequently distributed by the Data Center Coalition to reporters and lawmakers, positioning it as a rebuttal to the PEC's findings. Rolband also shared his agency's report with Vantage executives and the Data Center Coalition before its public release.
Critiques from health experts cited in the article, including former EPA official Michael Koerber, assert that soot pollution can negatively impact health even at EPA-approved levels, which conflicts with the DEQ's report. Despite DEQ's assertion that it did not collaborate with external parties on its assessment, internal emails show Rolband was in contact with Vantage regarding the PEC report. This situation highlights the contentious debate in Virginia over data centers' environmental impact and their increasing reliance on on-site power generation amidst growing electricity demands from the AI boom.