More from the article ...

... "Will you review and tell me what you think?" Rolband, the director of the state Department of Environmental Quality, asked members of his air permitting staff.

Internal emails obtained by POLITICO through a public records request paint a portrait of an agency that moved quickly to defend the only data center in Virginia that is powering itself -- in what former officials and environmental health advocates described as an unusual effort to shape the debate around an industry whose global epicenter is in the state.

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. ...

Yeah, Virginia seems to be the center on much of the traffic on the Internet. It is not a wonder why data centers want to locate there.