Disclaimer – this is not an exhaustive list of resources. We hope to continue adding helpful links to this page.
Reports and Studies
- Report to the Governor and the General Assembly of Virginia, from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) Study, 2024.
- This study was commissioned by the Virginia General Assembly in spring 2024 after legislators rejected all proposed legislation proposals to reform the data center industry.
- Making AI Less “Thirsty”: Uncovering and Addressing the Secret Water Footprint of AI Models
- a study on data center water usage by Pengfei Li, Jianyi Yang, Mohammad A. Islam, Shaolei Ren
- The Unpaid Toll: Quantifying the Public Health Impact of AI
- A study on the air pollution effects of data center by Yuelin Han, Zhifeng Wu, Pengfei Li, Adam Wierman, Shaolei Ren.
- Extracting Profits from the Public: How Utility Ratepayers Are Paying for Big Tech’s Power, March 5, 2025.
- A study of ratepayer impacts of data centers by Harvard Law School
- Data centers drive buildout of gas power plants and pipelines in the Southeast, January 29, 2025.
- A study by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA)
- Issued Air Permits for Data Centers, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
- A searchable database of air permits issued by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for data centers, including procedural reports and guidelines
Overview and Impacts: Webinars
- The Local Impact of Data Centers with Julie Bolthouse, Piedmont Environmental Council land use director
- A one-hour webinar presented by the Ohio State University Center for Urban and Regional Affairs. January 24, 2025
- Unpaid Toll: The Health Impacts of Data Centers
- A 90-minute webinar by Nature Forward on unmitigated public health impact of data centers with Shaolei Ren. February 25, 2025
- AI consumes a lot of water — but why?
- A TED talk on Data Center water usage with Shaolei Ren. October 2024
- Your Hour With APA Virginia: Planning for the Infrastructure of the Digital Age
- A webinar presented by Piedmont Environmental Council Land Use Director Julie Bolthouse. Virginia chapter of the American Planning Association, August 28, 2023.
Articles of Interest for Communities & Locality/Municipality
Taxes and Tax Revenue
- Data Center Tax Revenue Can Be Hard to Predict – Fauquier Times, Oct. 25, 2022
- City Officials Caught Off Guard as Bank Tenant Sidesteps Millions in Data Center Taxes – Potomac Local News | May 5, 2025.
- Secret data center tenant in Manassas not subject to business property taxes – Inside NoVA | May 7, 2025
- Guest Opinon: Banking on data center tax revenue? Wait before cashing that check | Culpeper Times — Opinion | insidenova.com – Culpeper Times, March 18, 2025
- Prince William County spending nearly $500K to fight data center lawsuits – Prince William Times, Dec. 3, 2024.
Power Shortages Impacting the Industry
- Power Shortages Can Lead to “Zombie Data Centers” – Business Insider, Oct. 23, 2025.
- Data Centers Face Seven-Year Wait for Power – Bloomberg, Aug. 29, 2024 [requires a subscription to view]
Other Topics of Interest
Realities of Jobs Creation: The AI Data-Center Boom Is a Job-Creation Bust – The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 25, 2025 [requires a subscription to view]
The Electrical Grid: How Tariffs Could Shock America’s Power System – The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 20, 2025 [requires a subscription to view]
Water Supply: The surging demand for data is guzzling Virginia’s water – Grist, May 8, 2024.
Air Quality: How Memphis became a battleground over Elon Musk’s xAI supercomputer – NPR, Sept. 11, 2024.
Noise & Visual Impacts: Data centers are changing the landscape. Here’s how they may affect rural Virginia – Cardinal News, March 12, 2025.
Importance of Local Zoning: Northern Virginia has more data centers than anywhere else in the world. Here’s its advice for Southside | Cardinal News, March 17, 2025.
Data Center as Bad Actors: How Memphis became a battleground over Elon Musk’s xAI supercomputer – NPR, Sept. 11, 2024.
Latest News Stories
Data centers have already hiked electricity prices on the public by $23 billion. Good luck clawing that back
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Fortune
(08/14/26)
I have studied the programs states have launched to address the needs of these large electricity customers. Prices are set by state utility commissions, who determine which customers’ rates will increase by how much to pay for new investments in electricity infrastructure. It’s not simple.
Virginia girds for data center-focused House races
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Politico
(08/04/26)
Virginia lawmakers defending their House seats this fall face growing pressure to weigh in on the growth of data centers in a state with the highest concentration of them. Concerns over energy affordability and water resources are mounting, and House candidates in Virginia who once punted the issue to state governments and localities are being asked to take a clear stance on how to control their costs and environmental impact.
Virginia faces a collision of policy choices on data centers and energy
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Cardinal News
(08/04/26)
The late country singer David Allan Coe once recorded a song about a train wreck in Tennessee in 1918. “The Great Nashville Railroad Disaster” tells the true story of a routing mishap that feels a lot like Virginia politics right now, except with more trains and more tracks, but all converging on the same place, which for our purposes is Capitol Square.
‘Concrete jungle’: As Amazon details plans for new Ashburn data centers, some residents are fed up
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WTOP News
(08/04/26)
Amazon has filed an application to transform George Washington University’s campus in Loudoun County, Virginia, into new data centers, a proposal that’s drawn pushback from residents and an elected official. Supervisor Juli Briskman, whose district includes the project site, said in a lengthy social media statement that the plan calls for 800,000 square feet of data center space.
DEQ study throws cold water on data center development east of I-95
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Virginia Mercury
(08/04/26)
Among the many environmental, energy and economic concerns about the unconstrained spread of data centers in Virginia, the impact on drinking water supplies has ranked fairly low. That changed suddenly last week, with the release of a report that the administration of Gov. Abigail Spanberger seems to have tried to suppress.
Sturtevant on data center moratorium: Before Virginia approves another data center, it should decide whether more are justified
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Cardinal News
(08/03/26)
Our current system relies on isolated local zoning decisions to address consequences that are plainly statewide. Local officials can evaluate a proposed site and negotiate local impacts. But they cannot determine whether Virginia has enough electricity for the continued growth or protect ratepayers statewide from footing the bill.
As Data Centers Eye W.Va., Local Communities Feel Overlooked
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WVPublicBroadcasting
(08/03/26)
For the past four months, Randy and Marsha Frame have lived with the daily noise of the construction of the 2,000-acre project as their neighbor. In May, stormwater runoff from the site flooded their yard. The neighborhood has been flooded twice, prompting state intervention. Heavy machinery completing earthworks for the site — and now a berm intended to prevent future flooding — has shaken their house enough to damage their foundation.
Texas governor puts data center grid approvals on hold
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Politico
(08/03/26)
New data centers in Texas have been put on hold in a striking reversal by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is up for reelection in November. Abbott on Monday directed the state’s power regulators and main grid managers to audit data centers seeking to connect to the Texas grid, saying no more additional data centers can be approved or move forward until that process is over.
Clean air or reliable power? Virginians shouldn’t have to choose | Guest column
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Richmond Times-Dispatch
(08/02/26)
In July, three events transpired in Northern Virginia that should serve as clear warnings about the impact these diesel generators have on our air quality — and why state regulators, including DEQ, need to pause data center approvals and permits to ensure public health is protected.
Questions over water use continue as Google data center debate grows in Botetourt County
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ABC 13 News
(08/02/26)
As debate continues over Google’s proposed data center in Botetourt County, questions about the project’s long-term water use remain at the center of the discussion. One member of the Botetourt County Planning Commission says his own research raises concerns about how the facility could affect the Roanoke Valley’s water supply during future droughts.
Expect utility bills to rise another 20 years, Spanberger’s chief energy officer says
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The Daily Progress
(08/02/26)
Virginia is home to the largest concentration of data centers in the world, with more than 600 located in Northern Virginia in what has become known as Data Center Alley. Their appetite for electricity is well documented, and the state’s public utilities have made it clear that they are largely responsible for the higher bills Virginia ratepayers are finding in their mailboxes.
Servers Over Shelter: How AI Data Centers Are Outbidding Home Builders for America’s Land
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National Association of Home Builders
(08/01/26)
At a January 2026 state hearing, Andrew Clark, a lobbyist for the Home Builders Association of Virginia, said data centers are “outbidding residential developers” in much of Northern Virginia. Local governments are no longer just deciding where to put data centers. They are deciding whether residential development can compete for land and grid capacity at all.
Virginia data centers face backlash over power line payments as residents still foot the bill
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The Cool Down
(08/01/26)
Ten years later, Virginia regulators are yet again grappling with a question that could directly affect household budgets: If data centers require costly new power lines, who should pay the bill?
In a state where data-center growth is booming, the answer could shape electricity costs for decades.
Virginia state senators call for data center moratorium
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NBC Washington
(08/01/26)
The calls to stop data center growth in the data center capital of the world are getting louder as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle get behind calls for a statewide moratorium. Some lawmakers said Virginia has to stop approving new data centers altogether until the impacts on water, electricity and other issues are figured out first.
Virginia senator calls for data center moratorium
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DC News Now
(07/31/26)
Sen. Glen Sturtevant (R-Colonial Heights) wants to hit the pause button on the approval and development of data centers in Virginia. Virginia is the data center capital of the world, as it has the highest concentration of these high-tech developments globally.
Isle of Wight County proposes data center ordinance
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The Smithfield Times
(07/31/26)
On July 28, Isle of Wight’s Planning Commission took its first look at proposed zoning ordinance changes to regulate the massive warehouse-like campuses that house the infrastructure powering popular cloud-based computing and artificial intelligence services.
Data centers offer to buy Loudoun County homes, homeowners looking to cash out
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WUSA 9
(07/30/26)
Gandhi’s home sits in the Regency, a subdivision of 143 houses off Waxpool Road flanked on two sides by data centers, in the heart of Loudoun County’s Data Center Alley — the largest concentration of data centers in the world. When he bought the house, he had no idea what was coming.
Henrico officials expect pause in new data centers
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Axios
(07/30/26)
Henrico officials don’t expect more data centers to come to the county anytime soon — signaling a dramatic shift after years of rapid growth in one of Virginia’s busiest hubs. Public opposition, a lack of appetite among county leaders to approve new projects and a recent state tax on data centers are among the reasons why, Axios has learned.
Judge denies citizen group’s request to join data center lawsuit
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Fauquier Times
(07/30/26)
Citizens for Fauquier County had asked to be a named a party on a lawsuit involving the Amazon data center, which was approved by the Warrenton Town Council back in 2023 for a site near U.S. 29 and Blackwell Road. But the attorney representing Amazon said CFFC was not aggrieved by the board of zoning appeals decision and thus was not guaranteed a seat at the defense table.
Loudoun official: Old rule treating data centers like offices no longer applies
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Washington Business Journal
(07/30/26)
Teresa Miller, Loudoun County’s zoning administrator, has issued an opinion stating that a 26-year-old ordinance likening data center uses to offices is obsolete in response to a July 12 request from Loudoun’s head of economic development to clarify the county’s data center zoning policies amid confusion from developers over where their applications stand amid recent legislative changes tied to data centers.
A report warned of health risks from a Loudoun County data center. Regulators moved fast to push back
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WAMU
(07/30/26)
A new Politico investigation explores the unprecedented steps taken by Virginia’s environmental regulators in response to a report detailing serious health risks posed by the state’s only self-powered data center. According to internal emails shared with Politico, some DEQ staffers pushed back, arguing the agency wasn’t equipped to weigh in on health effects tied to pollution it regulates.
Amazon Files Data Center Site Plan at George Washington Campus
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Loudoun Now
(07/30/26)
Amazon Data Services yesterday filed a site plan to build data centers on the property it purchased earlier this year from George Washington University. The site plan covers only a portion of the campus, most of which is currently undeveloped. However, that land also houses a university building along Academic Way.
The Valley Link transmission line is unpopular in rural counties, but it’s the result of policies pursued by both Republican and Democratic presidents
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Cardinal News
(07/30/26)
This column isn’t about the pros and cons of the Valley Link project, though. It’s about the political tensions that the opposition to this project helps expose. Many of those tensions are present with other energy projects; this one is just bigger than most, so therefore more interesting.
Loudoun County, other Virginia localities consider hitting the brakes on data center development
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Virginia Mercury
(07/30/26)
Loudoun County, ground zero of Data Center Alley and home to over 250 of the power-hungry digital warehouse facilities, is considering a pause on all new data center project applications, officials said this week.
Amazon Files Data Center Site Plan at George Washington Campus
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Loudoun Now
(07/29/26)
The university announced the sale of its 120-acre Loudoun campus, located along Rt. 7 in Ashburn, to Amazon earlier this year for $427 million… Briskman said initial plans include four two-story buildings totaling 800,000 square feet.
