On September 22, 2022 that Sustainability Commission unanimously passed resolution #22-007 which recommended several “fast-track” measures to put the county on a trajectory to achieve those goals.
Among their recommendations were: “Prohibit the building of new backup power generation using diesel and/or petroleum in favor of less carbon-intensive generation and encourage the conversion of existing diesel and/or petroleum backup systems to less carbon-intensive generation.”
This recommendation proved prescient. Unfortunately, it also proved futile. Chair Ann Wheeler has not seen fit to place it on the BOCS agenda despite multiple inquiries.
Now the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is proposing that more than 100 data centers in Loudoun, Prince William and Fairfax counties be given a variance from air pollution controls so they can run their diesel generators any time the electrical transmission system is strained.
Such a strain on the grid is anticipated this summer. This strain does not even account for numerous additional data centers that have been approved but not yet completed. These approvals move forward at breakneck speed despite the obvious inability of our electrical transmission capacity to keep pace.
Diesel generators are extremely loud and their pollutants are linked to cancer, asthma and autoimmune disease.
The Sustainability Commission is doing what they were hired for. The Board of County Supervisors clearly is not.
Bill Wright
Gainesville
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