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
AI-Powered Mass Emails Are Warping Local Energy, Climate Politics
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Bloomberg
(07/24/26)
Two weeks before the board of a Southern California environmental agency was to vote on a pair of landmark climate initiatives last May, staff raised an alarm. “An aggressive campaign” from an “AI powered platform,” they told executives, was flooding their servers with thousands of emails from the public opposing the proposals to phase out gas water heaters and furnaces in nearly half the state’s homes.
BREAKING: The Digital Gateway dies after last legal challenge is dropped
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Prince William Times
(07/02/26)
The Prince William Digital Gateway — a data center complex that could have brought up to 37 data centers to the edge of Manassas National Battlefield Park — is officially dead. Rural Gainesville residents who had been fighting the project since the weeks after it was approved in 2023 received word Thursday afternoon that data center developer QTS had withdrawn its appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court — which was the project’s only lifeline.
As Power Line Loop Moves Forward, Dominion Hosts Open Houses
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Loudoun Now
(07/02/26)
As the saga surrounding the Golden to Mars transmission line project seemingly comes to a close, Dominion Energy hosted another set of open houses for two substation projects that will connect with the power lines. The Aspen substation will be located southeast of Leesburg along the W&OD Trail, near where it intersects with Cochran Mill Road. The station will serve as the starting point for new 230-kilovolt and 500-kV transmission lines, known as the Aspen to Golden project.
Southern Environmental Law Center: Utilities are building a ton of gas for data centers. It’s time for Big Tech to stop them.
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Cardinal News
(07/02/26)
Utilities in the Southeast are planning a massive gas buildout and using Big Tech’s data center scramble as justification. I’ve spent five and a half years representing environmental nonprofits before state utility commissions — first in South Carolina, and now in Virginia. I still believe that tech companies can course correct the utilities’ plans and save the clean energy transition that data centers are threatening.
Teachers Asked to ‘Turn Off Lights’ in County Packed With Data Centers
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Newsweek
(07/01/26)
Henrico County employees, including school staff, have reportedly been asked to conserve electricity after the Virginia county, home to multiple data centers, said its power costs for government and school facilities would rise by nearly 25 percent starting July 1, adding an estimated $5 million in the next fiscal year.
‘We are screwed’: People near data centers dread heat wave pollution.
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E&E News
(07/01/26)
Searing temperatures this week could push energy demand to record levels on the mid-Atlantic’s electric grid, which fuels the country’s data center boom in Virginia. To relieve some of the pressure, the Department of Energy granted permission Tuesday to the region’s grid operator, PJM Interconnection, to potentially force data centers to use backup diesel generators.
Virginia budget passes with water regulations, energy tax for data centers
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Bay Journal
(07/01/26)
Risking a government shutdown, Virginia lawmakers debated for weeks about how to make data centers “pay for their fair share” before finally passing a budget that counts on $1.2 billion in tax revenue from the industry.
‘We are screwed’: People near data centers dread heat wave pollution
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Politico
(07/01/26)
Data Center Alley is facing a climate test. Searing temperatures this week could push energy demand to record levels on the mid-Atlantic’s electric grid, which fuels the country’s data center boom in Virginia.
County staff recommends supervisors deny massive Dulles Innovation South
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Prince William Times
(07/01/26)
What would be the largest data center development in Prince William County history – larger even than the Digital Gateway – could be stopped in its tracks next week if the county supervisors follow the county staff’s recommendation to deny an initial approval needed for the project to move forward. On Tuesday, July 7, the supervisors are scheduled to vote on whether to initiate a “comprehensive plan amendment” for a project known as “Dulles Innovation South.”
‘The Battle Line Has Been Drawn’ Around Virginia’s Data Centers
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Notus
(07/01/26)
Souring public sentiment led state lawmakers to grapple with how to regulate the industry and create a first-of-its-kind tax. Virginia Connects, the state-focused arm of the Data Center Coalition, whose members include Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent weeks on television and digital ads touting the economic benefits of data centers and downplaying criticisms, including about the industry’s water usage.
Central Virginia residents demand moratorium on data center construction
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The Daily Progress
(07/01/26)
Central Virginia is not home to a sizable data center population, but the spread of the boxy, buzzing buildings that power the internet outside of the world’s data center capital in Northern Virginia has Charlottesville-area residents ready to declare a moratorium on their construction.
New Jersey Lawmakers Just Nixed a 2-Year-Old Data Center Tax Credit
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Heatmap
(07/01/26)
Cryan, the state senator, put it more bluntly: “The reason for doing it was to show the public that we hear their outrage and can do something about it,” he said. “The governor and the legislature have heard the voices of the people of New Jersey.”
County staff recommends supervisors deny massive Dulles Innovation South
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Prince William Times
(07/01/26)
What would be the largest data center development in Prince William County history – larger even than the Digital Gateway – could be stopped in its tracks next week if the county supervisors follow the county staff’s recommendation to deny an initial approval needed for the project to move forward. On Tuesday, July 7, the supervisors…
Southside Va. data center project moves forward with budget deal
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Richmond Times-Dispatch
(07/01/26)
The budget deal that the General Assembly finalized Monday paid off a day later with the announcement that a $73 billion data center campus proposed in Pittsylvania County would move forward, after the developer previously had threatened to abandon the project if Virginia repealed its sales and use tax exemption on purchases of data center equipment.
Ashburn family loses fight to stop 185-foot data center power lines cutting through backyard
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WUSA 9
(07/01/26)
For 20 years, Vicky Hu has called her Ashburn neighborhood home. She raised her family here. She planned to retire here. That plan is now in jeopardy after the Virginia State Corporation Commission approved a route this week for new high-voltage transmission lines that will run directly through her backyard — clearing the final regulatory hurdle for Dominion Energy to begin construction.
Data center boom collides with record heat, testing power grid
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E&E News
(07/01/26)
DOE’s order would allow data centers to run generators beyond limits for emissions that EPA has categorized as a “possible human carcinogen.” Meeting higher electricity demand from air conditioning use during heat waves was already a challenge, said Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at Brown University. Adding data centers to the equation makes it harder.
Central Virginia residents demand moratorium on data center construction
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The Daily Progress
(07/01/26)
“Those are infrastructure projects that, but for the proliferation of this industry, wouldn’t be necessary, they wouldn’t be proposed. And they are impacting communities directly that will benefit in no way from this industry,” [McCown] said Sunday. “The least we can do is pause and come up with a commonsense plan.”
‘The Battle Line Has Been Drawn’ Around Virginia’s Data Centers
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Notus
(07/01/26)
But Virginia voters have quickly soured on the issue. A recent Washington Post-Schar School poll of more than 1,100 found just 35% would be comfortable with a new data center going up in their community, putting pressure on politicians to effectively choose between the interests of their constituents and those of the data center operators whose business they depend on.
Stack Infrastructure says it’s moving forward with AI data center in Pittsylvania
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Cardinal News
(06/30/26)
Stack Infrastructure says its AI data center project in Pittsylvania will move forward after the General Assembly finalized a budget Monday that kept state tax exemptions in place for the industry. The tax exemptions were the main hold-up in approving a budget. Ending the exemptions early would have jeopardized the Stack project, which would be the largest economic development announcement in Southside history in terms of investment and jobs.
Tract planning 872-acre data center campus in Goochland
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Virginia Business
(06/30/26)
Denver-based data center developer Tract has proposed a 900-megawatt data center campus in eastern Goochland County, the first project to come forward under the county’s newly created Technology Overlay District. Tract filed a pre-application for a conditional use permit for the project, called “Tuckahoe Technology Park,” on June 10.
With state budget blessed, Stack advances Southern Virginia project
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Danville Register & Bee
(06/30/26)
“With the signing of the budget agreement reached by the Governor and the General Assembly, STACK Infrastructure can confirm that our project at the Berry Hill Megasite in Southern Virginia will continue to advance through our competitive site selection process,” Kevin Hughes, chief external affairs officer for Stack Americas, told the Register & Bee in a Tuesday morning statement.
Digital Realty acquires Blackstone’s stake in three Virginia data centers for $3.5 billion
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Data Center Dynamics
(06/30/26)
Digital Realty is acquiring a stake in three Virginia data centers from investment giant Blackstone. The US colo firm and Blackstone this week announced that Digital Realty has agreed to purchase a stake in three fully leased data centers in Northern Virginia totaling 288MW of total IT capacity from Blackstone-affiliated funds managed by Real Estate, Infrastructure and Tactical Opportunities.
Henrico County Has 37 Data Centers – and Is Asking Teachers to Turn Off the Lights
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Yahoo News
(06/30/26)
Somewhere in Henrico County, Virginia, a teacher is being asked to shut down a computer at night so the county can shave a few bucks off its electric bill. Meanwhile, 37 data centers hum along across roughly 2,700 acres of county land, each one drinking power at a scale that makes your home energy use look like a nightlight — a demand surge accelerated by projects like the Stargate Project.
Google’s AI boom sends emissions, power use soaring
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Axios
(06/30/26)
Google’s electricity, water use and greenhouse gas emissions all climbed to record levels last year as the company raced to build more AI infrastructure. Google has invested more aggressively than perhaps any other tech company in clean energy, yet its environmental report released Tuesday shows how difficult it has become to keep climate goals on track amid the AI buildout.
Stack Infrastructure says it’s moving forward with AI data center in Pittsylvania
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Cardinal News
(06/30/26)
Stack Infrastructure says its AI data center project in Pittsylvania will move forward, after the General Assembly finalized a budget Monday that kept state tax exemptions in place for the industry. The tax exemptions were the main hold-up in approving a budget. Ending the exemptions early would have jeopardized the Stack project, which would be the largest economic development announcement in Southside history in terms of investment and jobs.
