Sal Orlando, News Editor
Over 300 people gathered and marched in Richmond on Oct. 24, calling for state leaders to pause data center development until reforms are in place.
The protest was a part of a two-week series of marches across the state organized by Chesapeake Climate Action Network Action Fund, when Richmond being the final stop.
The event included speakers from the organizations Virginia League of Conservation Voters, Stop Hanover Data Centers, the Henrico NAACP, Protect Cumberland and Sierra Club Virginia Chapter.
Attendees congregated at the bell tower in Capital Square Park, then marched down N. Ninth St., towards Old City Hall. The group crossed the street, marched passed City Hall, then crossed the street again and concluded the march in front of the Patrick Henry Building.
Sarah Ahmed, a member of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters, said the fight against data centers is happening in neighborhoods and communities across Virginia.
“While our electricity bills creep higher and higher, while our wells run dry, and while families and pets live with a constant industrial hum in their ears, the richest corporations in history are cashing in and we are bearing the cost,” Ahmed said.
Ahmed said that state leaders sided with corporate wealth over public health by not disrupting data center development. She said she believes no more data centers should be built in Virginia until there are regulations ensuring clean energy standards, protecting water supplies, lowering consumer energy costs and respecting Virginians’ quality of life.
“This is not some arbitrary talking point being said by some environmentalists,” Ahmed said. “This is what the people of Virginia who elected you [state leaders] are demanding.”
Jennifer Corpus, co-founder of Stop Virginia Data Centers, said data centers need power from gas plants, resulting in transmission lines on residential land.
Corpus said the proposed NextEra and Dominion Energy merger would change who controls the citizens power grid. Although Attorney General Jay Jones and Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi opposed the merger and the State Corporation Commission recommended denial, Gov. Spanberger was the Virginian politician to take Next-Era money for her inauguration.
“This week, she [Spanberger] told regulators, reject this merger, unless companies meet her terms,” Corpus said. “She didn’t say no to the Next-Era merger, she named her price.”
Corpus called for Spanberger to reject the merger.
Steve Herring, a member of Protect Cumberland, said Dominion Energy was approved by the Cumberland County Board of Supervisors to build the second largest national gas plant in the county.
“Dominion is trying right now to figure out how to rebuild their entire electric grid just to serve data centers, not to serve people,” Herring said.
Herring said Dominion is not up to the fight against residents, and that is why the company had to find a “corporate daddy in NextEra.”
Monica Hutchinson, president of the Henrico NAACP, said historically, whenever industrial infrastructure is fast tracked, it is not placed in communities with “political clout”, but in black and brown communities.
“We are not anti-technology, we are not anti-progress, but we are unconditionally pro-community and pro-accountability.” Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson demanded four protections: transparent community oversight, environmental justice, rate payer protection and righting past wrongs.
Hutchinson said she understands that technology can be an equalizing force, but only with strong guardrails and accountability measures.
Tim Cywinski, member of the Sierra Club Virginia chapter, said community members are not just asking for a moratorium, but for the floor of public policy to have justice.
“You’re [protesters] not just marching against data centers, you’re marching for a better future, one that works for all of us,” Cywinski said. “That is what’s at stake, and that is what all of you deserve. That is what we’re going to fight for from today to the end of [the general assembly] session.”