The problem: environmental justice concerns don’t confine themself to a public comment period.
The solution: create a way through which the people can bring their concerns about air, water, and land after a project of concern is fully operational.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) held a town hall last night, as required by a new state law. The purpose was to get input from the public on suggestions to a draft guidance, updating a prior guidance, that the Department has to do per that new law. Rather than have the draft guidance to provide the public so that we could make intelligible recommendations, the guidance hasn’t been drafted. There’s no ETA as to when it will be drafted. We the people were asked for recommendations based on something we haven’t seen.
Despite the public flying blind, we showed up, lodged our concerns and comments, and had them taken down for the record created by a court reporter (which in and of itself was weird). This town hall focused on the cumulative impact assessments DEQ must do when a project of concern applies for a permit. Here’s the problem with that: data centers can take up to 10 years to be fully operational. If the developer applies for a permit now, the full impact of environmental justice concerns may not be imminently felt. The public is then left without an avenue to address their concerns as it relates to a data center that impacts all of the areas DEQ regulates for a project of concern (air, land, water).
Environmental justice concerns of data centers don’t confine themselves to a public comment period. We should have a way in which the public can address their concerns, in a meaningful and accessible way, about environmental justice after the final rule goes into effect AND after data centers are fully operational.
We can have this level of people-first advocacy in Congress. I’m running to represent Virginia’s first district, currently occupied by fake phone caller, Rob Wittman (R). Will you invest in progress? Every dollar helps this grassroots progressive campaign. Click here to contribute.
