Hidden Costs of the Cloud: Data Centers in Virginia

Virginia is undergoing a massive economic, technological, and environmental transformation, all centered around the activities of one industry: data centers.

This massive industry is continuing to grow extremely fast, requiring huge amounts of energy, land, and water to operate, resulting in widespread community impacts. Yet, the Commonwealth does not currently have any regulatory oversight of data center development.

This explosive growth of data centers threatens to derail state efforts to meet climate goals, improve air and water quality, advance land conservation, and protect national and state parks.

Utilities are legally obligated to serve these data centers, no matter how much energy they require or the impact to the transmission grid. Virginia ratepayers are currently subsidizing this buildout for some of the largest and wealthiest companies in the world – which is patently unfair.

Now is the time to demand accountability and transparency. Urge your elected officials to support meaningful reform and oversight of the data center industry.

Learn more and take action at https://pecva.org/datacenters.

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00:00 Introduction
00:43 The Basics
01:59 Acceleration
03:03 Energy
05:28 Fairness
06:47 Conclusion

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Telx data center footage used under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Original Video: Telx USA Data Center Tour

News clips used:

https://www.cbs19news.com/story/49573...

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/lo...

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