Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Friday announced what her office called the nation's most comprehensive and aggressive data center accountability effort and signed an executive order immediately implementing many of its provisions.
The Data Center Accountability Framework includes five priorities, or what the governor called essential requirements for data center developers wanting to do business in Virginia.
The five new requirements encompass boosting transparency, protecting the environment, lowering energy costs, bolstering the state's energy grid and clean energy economy and delivering broadly shared value for the state's workforce.
With regard to increased transparency, the new framework calls for banning non-disclosure agreements for data center projects, ending by-right or fast-tracked development processes, ending state subsidies for data centers in Virginia site development programs and other measures.
Environmental protection measures include researching and expediting regulations for all types of data center pollution, as well as promoting investment in environmental initiatives and low-impact site design.
On energy costs, the framework calls for utilities to "allocate a more equitable share" of energy costs to data centers and large-load customers, and to require stronger upfront financial commitments from developers, among other provisions.
To protect the state's grid and energy economy, the framework calls for limiting data centers' use of gas for power generation, prioritizing projects that use clean energy, and requiring standards to prevent large fluctuations in electricity demand.
Finally, to support Virginia's workforce, the framework calls for prioritizing local hiring and procurement, supporting labor agreements where possible, and requiring businesses to set hiring and workforce training goals in communities.
The framework is to be implemented through the Governor's Executive Order 22, immediate directives to state agencies, and proposed legislation for the 2027 General Assembly session, the governor's office said.
Actions to be implemented immediately through the executive order include banning any government employees from entering into non-disclosure agreements for data center projects, creating an initial Data Center Planning and Community Engagement Toolkit for local governments and communities to help localities get a better deal, expediting the development of data center noise regulations, directing a thorough review of diesel and other backup-generation operations associated with data centers, working to direct data center investments in local energy projects that improve energy affordability and strengthen the state's electrical grid and developing best practices for prioritizing local workforce opportunities.
The executive order also immediately creates a rapid-response Artificial Intelligence Task Force, "to respond to the risks being foisted on Virginians by AI technology companies that should prioritize safe development and the protection of people and their livelihoods," the order reads.
State senators and representatives representing parts of Northern Virginia, including Dave Marsden, Jeremy McPike and Rip Sullivan, commended the move.
Marsden and Sullivan's state legislative committees will play active roles in approving and implementing many of the new policies.
"In the years before I took office, data centers came to Virginia and the Commonwealth did not have a clear or coordinated plan to address their impacts on Virginians — on their electric bills, their water, their land, their air, or their quality of life," said Governor Abigail Spanberger. "That changes today. I have said many times that Virginia should be leading the nation in setting the highest standards for this industry. And now, I believe we are doing just that."
Data center pollution and by-right development – an application process that requires only local government staff approval, not public hearings and full votes – have been hot-button issues in Northern Virginia's "Data Center Alley," where many local governments are being pressured by citizens to curtail the data center boom.
Several high-profile data center project approvals in Prince William County have recently been overturned or halted due to sustained citizen pressure, and campaigns are underway to block new data centers in Northern Virginia and beyond.
Spanberger's move might fall short for those who have been calling for a full data center moratorium in the state, however. Some localities are already working toward total pauses on data center development.
States around the country are working on legislation governing data center development. In Northern Virginia, which has one of the largest concentrations of data centers in the world, the issue is a matter of discussion at every level of government.
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