Key points
- Virginia proposes the strictest US data center rules
- Automatic approvals could end for big projects
- The core fight is who pays for power
- Dominion Energy (D) is in the middle
Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger unveiled a data center accountability framework on Friday and signed Executive Order 22 to begin putting parts of it into effect. "Virginia families and small businesses should not foot the bill for the data center industry," she said.
The framework calls for ending automatic "by-right" approval for large data centers and banning non-disclosure agreements for projects using 25 megawatts or more. Executive Order 22 directs state agencies to carry out parts of the plan and creates an AI task force. Changes to local approval rules would require action by Virginia's legislature in 2027.
What the framework does
A by-right approval lets a project that already meets local zoning proceed without a separate public hearing. Ending it would send each large data center through a discretionary local review. The framework would also open up the deals themselves, since the ban on non-disclosure agreements covers any project of 25 megawatts or more.
On energy, the framework offers incentives for data centers to use solar and wind for backup power instead of natural gas or diesel generators. The executive order also directs the state to steer data center investment toward local energy projects that lower costs and strengthen the grid.
Spanberger described the package as the most aggressive data center accountability effort in the country. Virginia has the largest concentration of data centers in the world, most of it in Loudoun County, where power demand is expected to more than double over the next five years.
The move follows similar steps by governors in New York, Texas, and Pennsylvania, where data centers have turned into a political issue ahead of the midterms. In Georgia, residents have sued over a data center approval.
Dominion Energy (D) is the primary utility serving Virginia's data centers, and the company is expected to draw the most attention as the rules take shape. The framework's central question is how the cost of meeting that rising demand is split between the data centers and everyone else, and Spanberger's answer is that households should not pay. "Community members are demanding action," she said.
Northern Virginia also holds the largest cluster of cloud data centers in the country, including Amazon (AMZN) Web Services' largest region.
