Artificial Intelligence vs the Environment: The Prince William Digital Gateway Project

On June 3rd, 2026, the United Nations University (UNU) published a study about how AI not only leaves a massive carbon footprint but also a considerable water and land footprint, amassing about 30 mL of water per query with LLMs like Chat GPT. According to Dr. Miriam Aczel from the UNU, with every “low carbon” greenwashing claim from AI chatbots and even green internet browsers like Ecosia, there comes a cost because “often(times) the choices that look greenest from a carbon perspective end up worse for water or for land.” 

In spite of this study, though, America continues to be the global leader of AI infrastructure with future projects being overly concentrated in rural neighborhoods. Even the historic Manassas National Battlefield Park was nearly set aside as QTS Data Center’s future Prince William Digital Gateway or what would have marked the largest data center in the world had it not been for a years-long legal challenge brought by local homeowners and preservation groups like Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC). Following the deliberation of two separate lawsuits regarding this challenge, the Virginia Court of Appeals ruled to effectively halt further construction of the Prince William Digital Gateway project, citing a failure to properly notify the residents before approving its construction. 

With Virginia now being the data center of the world, this particular ruling pushes back on AI’s unrestricted expansion near or even into civilian neighborhoods, especially after QTS Data Center recently abandoned its fight to appeal the court’s decision on July 2nd, 2026. In spite of this, President Donald Trump continues to publicly support both AI companies and his AI Action Plan as Microsoft’s AI division seeks to win its pending lawsuit against the residents of Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin. 

Currently, though, PEC views this legal win as a start to curbing unchecked data center growth.