Virginia Data Center Reform

Hidden Costs of the Cloud

We began this campaign to protect our national parks, rural area, and drinking water supply. Little did we know that this was just the beginning. The rate of data center proliferation is now putting stress on our grid and the state-wide impacts are becoming abundantly clear. Check out this video by PEC to learn more.

List of Bills we’re tracking

We will update this periodically, but things move fast! For real-time updates, go to VCN Tracker.

Don’t know who your legislator is? Find out here!
For a quick overview of the proposed bills and how they’ll help check out PEC’s handout here.

Energy Efficiency Bills

  • HB116 [continued to 2025] Sullivan (D) and SB192 [continued to 2025] Subramanyam (D) – Ties sales and use tax exemption to energy efficiency and procurement of renewables

  • HB910 [continued to 2025] Srinivasan (D) – Requires quarterly reporting on energy usage

Siting Bills

  • HB337 [subcommittee recommends laying on the table] Lovejoy (R) and Thomas (D) and SB284 [continued to 2025] Roem (D) – Discourages siting that impacts historic and agricultural resources and prohibits within 1 or ½ mile of a park

  • HB338 [crossed over to Senate] Helmer (D), Lovejoy (R), and Thomas (D) – Requires siting assessment on water usage and carbon emissions as well as impact on agriculture

  • HB1010 [subcommittee recommends laying on the table] Lovejoy (R) – Prohibits data centers within ¼ mile of schools, parks, or residential areas

  • SB285 [continued to 2025] Roem (D) – Requires disclosure of water and power usage at full build-out and site assessment to review impacts

  • SB288 [failed to report from committee] Roem (D) – Requires noise abatement requirements

  • SB289 [continued to 2025] Roem (D) – Requires additional stormwater management near parks

Undergrounding of Transmission Lines Bills

  • HB340 [subcommittee recommends laying on the table] Lovejoy (R) and Thomas (D), SB286 [failed to report from committee] Roem (D) – Undergrounding of transmission lines within a half mile of a national park is in the public interest

  • SB708 [continued to 2025] Perry (R) – Pilot project for underground transmission lines, increasing capacity from 230 kilovolts to 500 kilovolts

Industry Pays Bills

  • HB1288 [continued to 2025] Webert (R) – Requires public electric, water, and sewer utilities to have a separate classification for data centers

  • SB191 [continued to 2025] Subramanyam (D) – Requires aggregate planning of generation, transmission, and distribution and initiates a proceeding to assess the current allocation of costs and amend if found data centers are subsidized

  • SB664 [continued to 2025] Stuart (R) – Prohibits the costs associated with electrical infrastructure required by the industry to be allocated to all ratepayers.

Process Bills

  • SB667 [failed to report from committee] Stuart (R) – Removes authority for locality for accelerated permitting