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
Nvidia-Backed Startup Aims to Speed AI Data Center Grid Connections
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Bloomberg
(06/18/26)
Long queues to get connected to the strained energy grid have sent data centers scrambling for ways to get power fast — from hauling in natural gas turbines to revamping how data centers are designed. Verse Enterprises Inc., a San Francisco-based startup, says its software can help data centers skip the line by managing off-grid batteries and solar.
Google tries to answer Botetourt County residents’ concerns
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WVTF
(06/18/26)
For the first time, Google hosted a public open house about its proposed data center in Botetourt County. Hundreds of people flooded into Lord Botetourt High School Wednesday to learn more about Google’s proposed data center – and to voice their opposition to it. The two-hour open house was preceded by a protest in front of the high school, and people holding signs lingered throughout.
Sen. Lucas rallies support in Chesterfield for data center crackdown
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Richmond Times-Dispatch
(06/18/26)
“Companies with trillions of dollars (are) whining about paying their fair share of sales and use tax,” she said, adding that she’s been disappointed that many elected officials are resisting her effort to rein in data centers. Meanwhile, House of Delegates budget-writers seem interested in the impact fee, which would levy a charge on data centers’ backup generators…
Environmental groups say Virginia must act now on data center concerns
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13 News Now
(06/17/26)
The organizations are urging lawmakers to adopt additional safeguards, including requirements for data centers to secure clean energy resources, limit the use of fossil fuel-powered backup systems and reduce water consumption in areas facing water shortages.
Va. Senate moves towards ‘impact fee’ proposal for data centers as budget talks continue
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29 News
(06/17/26)
While Deeds says none of the details have been finalized yet, the Senate’s new budget proposal no longer requires an elimination of the sales and use tax exemption for data centers, the sticking point that’s been at the center of the months-long stalemate. Instead, the state would levy an “impact fee,” or a tax on each data center based on its backup diesel generators.
NextEra to pay $150M to settle charges related to Florida political misconduct allegations
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Utility Dive
(06/17/26)
NextEra Energy has agreed to pay $150 million to settle allegations that the company lied about its involvement in political interference schemes in Florida, according to a proposed settlement filed Monday in a federal court. The agreement comes about a month after NextEra and Dominion Energy said they planned to merge in a $67 billion deal.
The Cloud Has Sound: The Unrelenting and Unseen Cost of A.I. Data Centers
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The New York Times
(06/17/26)
The heartbeat of the artificial intelligence economy sounds like a low-frequency thrum of a neighbor’s central air-conditioning unit, an airplane flying overhead at high altitude or a truck engine idling down the road. But it feels like the vibrating, rhythmic pulse of a subwoofer from a party that will never end.
Senate budget proposal keeps data center sales tax exemption, adds new tax for industry
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Virginia Mercury
(06/17/26)
The revamped proposal also adds a tiered tax for the industry that targets diesel generators and would generate $1.8 billion for the state, Senate leaders said. Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, has advocated to axe the exemption for months but amid stalled negotiations that risk a government shutdown if a budget isn’t finalized by June 30…
‘Read the damn room’: Virginia’s data center fight deepens Dem divisions
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E&E News
(06/17/26)
“Governor, read the damn room,” Lucas said Monday to a standing ovation from about 200 attendees at her listening tour’s stop in Manassas, where developers have sought to build a massive data center project near a Civil War battlefield. Lucas argued that the public would blame Spanberger for a state government shutdown…
Speaker Scott says Sen. Lucas has sparked ‘civil war’ among Democrats over budget
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Richmond Times-Dispatch
(06/17/26)
ouse Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, says Senate Finance Chair Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, has sparked “a civil war among Democrats” by publicly attacking him and Gov. Abigail Spanberger in an escalating budget battle that could leave Virginia without a way to run state government on July 1. In an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Monday, Scott placed the blame for the budget crisis on Lucas for allegedly refusing to negotiate a compromise over the Senate’s proposed repeal of a state sales and use tax exemption for the purchase of data center equipment. The impasse over the tax exemption has left budget negotiators unable to meet as a group for more than three months until a meeting scheduled on Tuesday.
On-site power, low water use pledged for proposed $4.5B data center campus in Strasburg
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The Winchester Star
(06/16/26)
The boards listed about 1,500 construction jobs, 150 to 165 permanent ones at the “data center campus and power plant combined,” and wages of $105,000 to $115,000. They projected $13 million a year in tax revenue and about $400 million over 30 years. Those are figures a footnote called preliminary, drawn from a similar project in Phoenix called Project Baccara, with a study specific to Tallmadge still underway.
‘Data center gluttony’: Sen. Lucas pushes back against Gov. Spanberger at Prince William town hall
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InsideNoVa
(06/16/26)
“I’m confident we’re gonna get a deal,” Roem said. “We have to get a deal. No one wants a government shutdown, I certainly don’t. And at the same time, it’s just – you just saw the room tonight. We’ve got to give to the people a budget that reflects the priorities of Virginia – and the priorities of western Prince William County and the greater Manassas area [are] no more data center sales tax exemption.”
Virginia House cancels budget session as data center tax dispute nears deadline
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ABC 13 News
(06/16/26)
Virginia’s House of Delegates will not return to Richmond this week as planned, leaving the state budget unresolved with the June 30 deadline approaching. The House was scheduled to reconvene Thursday to work on the state budget, but the House calendar shows the session has been canceled. No explanation was provided.
Drawing a line in the sand against more data centers in Northern Virginia
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WTOP News
(06/16/26)
Many of the approximately 120 people attending the meeting at the Best Western hotel on Balls Ford Road in Manassas expressed disappointment in some Virginia politicians, including Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who have pushed to renew tax breaks for the multibillion-dollar corporations behind the centers. Another major concern for those in the crowd was the centers’ impact on the environment.
Amid budget battle, legislators pass the buck on concrete data center reforms. Again.
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Virginia Mercury
(06/16/26)
Leaders in the House of Delegates are continuing to tweak their version of a state budget, but they aren’t backing down from their fight with the Senate over data centers. What they are backing down from is their former insistence that data centers use clean energy. Instead, they propose to punt this and every other data center issue over to a commission.
State Senate drops tax exemptions in budget fight, introduces ‘impact fees’ for data centers
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Cardinal News
(06/16/26)
The state Senate presented a new budget proposal Tuesday that takes a significant step away from ending data center tax exemptions early — a major point of contention in biennial budget negotiations. Instead the Senate introduced a new state impact fee for data centers which, if adopted, could generate $1.7 billion over the biennium.
Data center debate spills over into Spanberger bill signing
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Virginia Scope
(06/16/26)
Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation tell Virginia Scope that state Sens. Mike Jones, D-Chesterfield, and Russet Perry, D-Fairfax, left a ceremonial bill signing with Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Tuesday afternoon. Spanberger was conducting a ceremonial signing of gun-violence-prevention legislation. According to multiple sources, a member of Spanberger’s staff approached Perry and Jones, who were seated in seats with their name placards, and asked to speak with them in the hallway.
Spanberger urges lawmakers to make good on primary responsibility to pass state budget
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ABC 13 News
(06/15/26)
“It is important and essential and the duty of every elected official in the General Assembly to pass a budget,” Spanberger said. “That is their primary responsibility, and my expectation is every member of the General Assembly, House and Senate, be engaged in aggressive conversations about how it is that this budget will move forward.”
Amazon Data Centers Tout Water Efficiency Gains
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Loudoun Now
(06/15/26)
Data center companies have traditionally declined to reveal the number of gallons consumed by their buildings, but a law introduced by Sen. Kannan Srinivasan (D-32) this year will soon change that by requiring water providers to publish the amount used by data centers every quarter. That will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2027.
Gigaland data center developers offer millions in grants to Fauquier nonprofits
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Fauquier Times
(06/15/26)
The developers of Gigaland, a controversial proposal to bring more data centers near Remington, are offering several Fauquier County nonprofits grants as much as $1 million – an amount one organization’s leader called “transformational.” But the grant contract says the money is tied to the project moving forward.
Northern Virginia residents and lawmakers sound off on data centers in town hall
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WJLA-ABC7News
(06/15/26)
The seemingly never-ending tug of war between Northern Virginia residents and data center companies has spilled over into Richmond, as the Virginia General Assembly is now working against the clock to settle the debate over tax breaks for these facilities that has become a sticking point in the current budget stalemate.
The House and Senate both released new budgets. Here’s how they align and diverge.
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Virginia Mercury
(06/15/26)
With a June 30 deadline looming before a state government shutdown, Virginia legislators have released new budget proposals, the latest actions in a long-simmering debate over the state spending plan that has deadlocked over whether data centers should keep being exempt from the state’s sales and use tax.
‘It’s outrageous’: Spanberger navigates budget fight, Democratic unrest six months into governorship
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Virginia Mercury
(06/15/26)
“I think it’s outrageous that we are where we are, and I hear from many legislators that they are displeased with the process,” Spanberger said during an interview with The Mercury at her office in Richmond Thursday, referring to the state’s still unfinished biennial spending plan.
Microsoft’s Clean Energy Reversal Collides With Virginia’s Climate Goals
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Inside Climate News
(06/15/26)
One of the world’s most profitable technology companies could be abandoning an ambitious clean-energy goal in Virginia as it races to build electricity-hungry data centers. Several of the company’s facilities are already operating in Virginia, the data center capital of the world, and more are planned, creating a tension with the state’s own climate commitments. Microsoft is considering ending its round-the-clock or 24/7 clean energy goal, which aims to meet 100 percent of its energy consumption 100 percent of the time with zero-carbon electricity by 2030.
Prince William supervisors hope to end data center overlay district by 2027; initial talks eyed for fall
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InsideNoVa
(06/15/26)
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors is likely to consider by early fall a board-initiated zoning text amendment that would substantially reduce the county’s Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District and end by-right data center development entirely. If passed, the amendment would take effect in late 2026 or early 2027, according to a county staffer familiar with the proceedings, but there is no official timeline as of yet.
