Protect Mason County’s Air

The Monarch Cloud Campus (MCC) applied to the WV Department of Environmental Protection (WV DEP) Division of Air Quality (DAQ) for a permit to construct an off-grid electric power facility to support a data center campus north of Point Pleasant. 

Thanks to your advocacy, WV DEP extended the deadline for written comments to Friday, November 13, 2026, at 5 pm. Email daqpubliccomments@wv.gov with the subject line “Monarch Comments” and your comment to make sure your voice is recorded. 

Please use the Fast Facts below as a guide, but using your own words and experiences will have a greater impact.

Important Note: Your lived experiences and personal concerns are critical in your testimony and comments. Expressing your concerns about this enormous project in your own words will be most effective. 

This permit focuses on air impacts, and you should be clear about your position on it. It is also important to mention related experiences (i.e., respiratory conditions, children or elderly in household, flooding impacts from the company’s stormwater violations, etc.) for the record. 

Fast Facts

Air Pollution

• The proposed permit would authorize a major source of emissions including particulate matter, oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds, sulfuric acid mist, hazardous air pollutants, and greenhouse gases. 
• According to the EPA’s own calculator, this data center complex will emit 11 million tons per year of carbon dioxide, the equivalent pollution in a single year as over 2 million cars.
• This plant could emit about 300 tons a year of formaldehyde, a carcinogen. 
• The purpose of the West Virginia Air Pollution Control Act is “to achieve and maintain levels of air quality that protect human health and safety.” 
• The Monarch Cloud Campus puts human and environmental health and safety at risk.

Public Health

• The air pollution from this proposed plant will increase smog and soot, which exacerbate heart and lung disease, stroke, and asthma attacks.
• WV suffers from some of the highest asthma rates and cardiovascular disease mortality rates in the country, all while having one of the oldest populations.
• WV ranks fifth and first in the country for asthma rates in children and adults at 9.4 percent and 13.9 percent, respectively.
• WV ranks seventh in the country in mortality rates from heart disease at 205 deaths per 100,000 people.
• WV ranks third in the country for the highest percentage of the population aged 65 and older, at 21.9 percent.

Cumulative Impact

• Monarch Cloud Campus’ major source air permit is for 2 gigawatts. The company is planning to scale to 8 gigawatts by 2031. 
• The 864 generator engines plan to burn natural gas. If the pipeline is the right size for the 8 gigawatts scale-up, then the expansion is already being planned and built. 
• WV DEP must consider the air pollution from the entire project at once, not separate it into multiple permits. Nobody breathes one permit at a time.
• The permit places no limit on emergency generator use. DEP should cap how many emergency hours they run.
• The nearest home is 499 feet from a generator smokestack, and two Point Pleasant schools are about 2.5 miles away. 
• Monarch Cloud Campus is proposed 1 mile from the Gavin Power Plant and Kyger Creek Substation just across the river in Ohio, deemed one of the deadliest and most polluting power plants in the country. While these plants are across state borders, air pollution does not respect state lines. WV DEP should consider cumulative air pollution in its permit determination.
  

For the listed air pollution, public health, and cumulative impacts, WV DEP should deny this permit to fulfill its mission “to promote a healthy environment.”

Submit your comments by Friday, November 13, 2026, at 5 pm. Email daqpubliccomments@wv.gov with the subject line “Monarch Comments” and your comment to make sure your voice is recorded.