Platform represents major improvement upon status quo, but communities in crisis need immediate relief through pause on data center development

 

RICHMOND, VA — Governor Abigail Spanberger released today her “Data Center Accountability Framework,” which includes a combination of executive actions and policy endorsements to protect communities and the environment from data centers. Several of the endorsed policies take notable steps to address on-site pollution, rising energy bills associated with data center infrastructure and demand, and community impacts. However, the platform does not include a pause on data center development or a ban on on-site gas generation for primary power. Communities around the Commonwealth are calling for a moratorium on data center approvals until comprehensive policy guardrails are in place to protect communities and the environment, a platform called “Pause to Protect.”

Victoria Higgins, Virginia Director of Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN), issued the following statement:

“We appreciate that the Governor’s platform takes several major steps forward, but also that communities facing data center development are in crisis right now. We need a pause on data center approvals until water-tight environmental and community protections are on the books and being enforced. Scientists are begging policymakers to take decisive action yesterday to stop runaway climate change, while the Trump Administration moves to allow limitless pollution. We must stop the madness and issue an immediate pause on approvals until these protections – and more – are fully implemented.”

CCAN is supportive of policy proposals to ensure that data centers pay for infrastructure they incentivize the incumbent utility to build, procure their own clean energy resources, ban Non-Disclosure Agreements, eliminate by-right development, and close regulatory loopholes that allow diesel generation to escape compliance with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. While the Governor’s platform suggests strong limits on behind-the-meter, or directly-connected, gas turbines as a means of primary power for data centers, CCAN advocates for an all-out ban on such on-site gas generation. 

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Chesapeake Climate Action Network is the first grassroots organization dedicated exclusively to raising awareness about the impacts and solutions associated with global warming in the Chesapeake Bay region. Founded in 2002, CCAN has been at the center of the fight for clean energy and wise climate policy in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC.