In a Virginia county, environmental groups rally for statewide data center moratorium

This story was originally published by the Virginia Mercury.

A united front of environmental groups representing all corners of the commonwealth on Wednesday in Hanover urged the state government to implement a statewide pause on all new data center permit approvals and connections to the grid until stricter regulations for water use, energy infrastructure, and siting are enacted.

Representatives from over a dozen organizations stood outside the Hanover Humane Society where a few hundred feet away, through a thin smattering of trees, a hyperscale data center was being built. The facility was permitted by-right, meaning there were no public hearings or votes before supervisors gave it the green light.

“Here in Ashland, Big Tech swoops in, pulls the wool over our eyes and breaks ground before we’re able to fight back,” Blair St. Ledger Olson with the Virginia League of Conservation Voters said.

The groups called for more transparency concerning the construction and operation of data centers in the area, stronger protections for any ill effects from the facilities for residents living near them, and for ratepayers to be shielded from shouldering the cost of energy infrastructure built for data centers.

They also pushed for these facilities to use clean energy, and for drinking water sources and private land to be protected.

Virginia is the home to over 400 data centers already in operation with about 280 planned and proposed.

Nate Benforado with the Southern Environmental Law Center emphasized that some regulatory changes for utilities are in the works, such as the new GS5 rate class for large load customers under Dominion Energy, and an effort to levy more transmission line costs onto those customers, as well.

“There are some utility reforms underway at our utility commission. But I’ll tell you from being in that courtroom, it is slow and it is incomplete,” Benforado said.

Some of the organizations at Wednesday’s demonstration stood beside Gov. Abigail Spanberger just a month ago when she unveiled her data center accountability framework. It’s a plan to rein in data center growth and address rampant public concerns about how data centers impact the environment. 

The groups’ requests on Wednesday overlap with the governor’s plan in key areas, including a proposed ban on nondisclosure agreements and enhanced air and water protections. 

Several leading environmental groups criticized the governor’s plan because it  doesn’t call for a full moratorium while lawmakers consider the legislative package.

Allowing new data centers to continue through the process without new checks and balances would leave too many Virginians and resources at risk, representatives of the group insisted.

“We don’t have six months, we don’t have a year,” Elena Schlossberg, with the Coalition to Protect Prince William County, said. “The pause needs to happen now. Not one more hookup if it means another Virginian loses their property, if it means they’re gonna breathe in more diesel generator fumes. Enough is enough.”

Some of the groups have been fighting to slow down the data center industry’s development in the state for years, including the Sierra Club and Schlossberg’s advocacy organization

New groups are now joining the chorus asking the state to create a moratorium. 

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which has been raising awareness about water availability within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed in a landmark drought year, is one of those new opposing voices. The growing concerns about the industry widened the scope of their priorities, representatives said Wednesday. 

“Last General Assembly, we did not support a moratory,” said Jay Ford, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Virginia Policy Manager. “But I think that is really representative of how this issue has moved and something that we hope that the governor and her team are taking note of.”

Currently, the Department of Environmental Quality is studying areas east of Interstate-95 that are to be deemed “water scarcity areas,” which would limit data center development for facilities that use evaporative cooling systems. These systems can use hundreds of millions of gallons of water annually. 

That report is scheduled to be released this month.

DEQ is also tasked with developing noise regulations for data centers. The agency is looking into how quietly data centers are able to operate, with the goal to apply that as standard across the board.

Spanberger has proposed an idea for legislation that would expedite that process. The governor’s plan also requires new data centers to invest in cleaner backup generators.

Additionally, Spanberger’s plan outlines methods to direct more of the costs of energy infrastructure needed solely for data centers to the industry.

Several data center moratorium bills have already been filed for the 2027 General Assembly session that is set to begin in January. 

Sen. Russet Perry, D-Loudoun, has proposed a three-year pause on approving any new data centers. The senator said it would give the state time to develop more data center regulations and policies that would protect communities and ratepayers.

The data center industry remains adamantly against a data center moratorium.

“We join the many local governments, economic developers, business leaders, and labor unions who believe a top-down, statewide moratorium is the wrong approach to regulating this economically impactful industry,” Nicole Riley with the Data Center Coalition said. “States and communities that signal that they are closed for business and investment risk relinquishing substantial long-term economic investment, high-wage jobs, and critical tax revenue to neighboring areas or other states.”

The regular session for the General Assembly begins on Jan. 13.

Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com.