08/03/2026
According to internal emails obtained through a public records request, some Virginia DEQ staff told agency leadership they were not qualified to evaluate the report’s health findings. Despite those concerns, the agency moved forward with a public response defending the facility and disputing the report’s conclusions.
"The agency’s pushback focused on the report’s findings that the facility in Loudoun County could release harmful amounts of air pollution through eight bus-sized natural gas turbines — as allowed by permits granted by DEQ itself.
Behind the scenes, Rolband’s request was met by opposition from some DEQ staffers who said that assessing the report’s assertions on health effects fell outside of their environmental training.
“We aren’t qualified to do that review,” one staffer said in an email.
The request comes as data centers are devising new ways to produce their own power as a way to temper growing public discord over rising electricity prices amid the AI construction boom. Virginia has more than 600 data centers.
The report commissioned by Piedmont raised concerns that the data center’s on-site power system, which also includes dozens of backup diesel generators, could cause tens of millions of dollars in health damages to people living around the facility, owned by Vantage Data Centers."
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The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality stepped into a fight over powering AI facilities with natural gas turbines. It could shape the industry’s future.
