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
County Supervisors Raise Concerns About Proposed Leesburg-Area Substation
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Loudoun Now
(04/17/26)
The Aspen substation is proposed to be built along Cochran Mill Road near its intersection with Crosstrail Boulevard next to an existing substation. It would serve as a starting point for the Apsen to Golden transmission line that was approved by the State Corporation Commission in 2024 and is part of the reliability loop. The W&OD Trail runs directly next to the site.
Conservation groups raise alarm as Potomac River named most endangered in the nation
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Virginia Mercury
(04/17/26)
The Potomac River, otherwise known as “the nation’s river,” has been named the most endangered river in the country, following a massive sewage spill earlier this year and the ongoing buildout of thirsty data centers across the watershed.
Hanover Planning Commission recommends approval of 430-acre data center project
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Richmond BizSense
(04/17/26)
The Hanover Planning Commission on Thursday voted 6-1 to endorse a proposal by Denver-based company Tract to rezone nearly 430 acres for a data center development at 13074 Mountain Road and 12517 Winns Church Road.
Wilderness Crossing lawsuit in legal limbo
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Culpeper Star-Exponent
(04/16/26)
A legal challenge to the 2,600-acre Wilderness Crossing private development in eastern Orange County remains in legal limbo nearly three years after a historic coalition filed a civil lawsuit against the Board of Supervisors. The project at Virginia 3 and Virginia 20 proposes thousands of new homes along with industrial and commercial development, including Amazon data centers.
Spanberger suggests ‘significant policy shifts’ to Dominion regulation bills
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VPM
(04/16/26)
One of the most wide-ranging pieces of utility legislation that passed the General Assembly this session may grow even further after amendments from Gov. Abigail Spanberger. State lawmakers say the amendments undermine months of legislative negotiations.
Data Center Protests Are Growing. How Should the Industry Respond?
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Data Center Knowledge
(04/16/26)
According to Data Center Watch, $18 billion in data center projects have been successfully halted, and another $46 billion has been delayed over the past two years due to opposition from residents and activist groups.
Sterling Residents Raise Alarms Over Off-Grid Data Center
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Loudoun Now
(04/16/26)
Sterling residents are raising concerns over the impacts of a data center that is operating independently from the region’s power grid – making it the county’s first data center with its own microgrid.
LPSC approves request by Entergy Louisiana to fast-track gas power plant construction plan for Meta’s Richland Parish data center
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Louisiana Radio Network
(04/16/26)
The state’s Public Service Commission has approved Entergy Louisiana’s request to expediate the approval process on the power company’s plan to build seven new gas power plants and other investments to power Meta’s data center in Richland Parish.
Underground Power Line Bills Gain Spanberger’s Approval
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Loudoun Now
(04/15/26)
Intended to provide a way to mitigate impacts from the Golden to Mars transmission line project, proposed by Dominion Energy, on eastern Loudoun residents, SB 827 and HB 1487 authorize the State Corporation Commission to approve applications for projects to be buried entirely or in part. However, a ruling from the State Corporation Commission last week determined burying lines at this location is not feasible.
The US Government Will Ask Data Centers How Much Power They Use
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Wired
(04/15/26)
The US federal government’s central energy information agency is planning to implement a mandatory nationwide survey of data centers focused on their energy use, according to a letter seen by WIRED. This survey would be the first effort of its type to collect basic information about data centers.
Maine Presses Pause on Large Data Centers. Will Other States Follow Its Lead?
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Inside Climate News
(04/15/26)
Maine is now the first state to pass a moratorium on the development of large data centers, and others may follow.
In this U.S. hot spot for data centers, voters have turned against them
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The Washington Post
(04/15/26)
Data centers enjoyed bipartisan support from Virginians as recently as 2023, but that has flipped to dismay throughout the state, including in regions that are far from the dense cluster of hundreds of facilities outside Washington known as “Data Center Alley.”
Amid ‘constant’ data center noise, Sterling residents also worry about health impact
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NBC Washington
(04/15/26)
Whether it’s daytime or the dead of night, there is no such thing as peace and quiet in this Sterling neighborhood. Here’s why: A Vantage data center there is the only one in Virginia powered by gas turbines.
Residents Say Musk’s AI Supercomputer Is a ‘Death Sentence’ for Memphis Communities
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Capital B
(04/15/26)
The NAACP is suing Elon Musk’s xAI for allegedly skirting permits and running gas turbines that are spewing formaldehyde and smog‑forming pollution into Black communities already scoring failing grades for air quality.
Prince William County drops legal fight for PW Digital Gateway
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Prince William Times
(04/14/26)
Prince William County will give up its fight to resurrect the Prince William Digital Gateway – a project that was poised to bring as many as 37 data centers to the edge of Manassas National Battlefield Park. The supervisors’ decision also ends the county’s use of outside legal counsel to keep the data center project alive.
Prince William County withdraws from Digital Gateway lawsuit, reversing course from 2023
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InsideNoVa
(04/14/26)
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors on Tuesday formally withdrew from appeals of the PW Digital Gateway lawsuit after spending $1.72 million in taxpayer funds to defend legal challenges to the controversial data center project.
Google cloud? Steam from data centers may be disrupting aviation along Columbia River
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The Oregonian
(04/14/26)
Enormous data centers are changing the landscape in small communities across Oregon. In The Dalles, residents of the riverfront community are wondering if Google is also changing their weather. Steam venting from cooling towers on Google’s local data centers sometimes collects along the Columbia River on chilly mornings and may be a bigger issue for pilots flying in and out of the Columbia Gorge Regional Airport.
Virginia Lawmakers Clash Over $1.6B Data Center Tax Breaks
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Capital News Service
(04/14/26)
State lawmakers will soon return to the Capitol after ending the General Assembly session without a budget, in part due to some debate whether to continue current tax breaks for data centers.
Existential Threat for Carter Farms
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Connection Newspapers
(04/14/26)
Carter Farms is a historic century farm in the Piedmont region, Unionville, in Orange County, Virginia. The farm specializes in growing ethnic, African tropical vegetables organically. Michael Carter Jr., an 11th-generation American farmer, is the fifth generation to work at Carter Farms, where he leads workshops on growing and marketing ethnic vegetables.
Amazon buys 44 acres in Prince William County, Virginia
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Data Center Dynamics
(04/14/26)
Citing local property records, BizJournal reports BlackChamber sold 6922, 6894, 6898 Wellington Road and 8019 Devlin Road to the cloud company’s Amazon Data Services affiliate. Amazon paid $120 million for a total of 44 acres, equating to around $2.7m per acre.
Utilities Plan to Spend $1.4 Trillion Over Next Five Years to Power AI Boom
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The Wall Street Journal
(04/14/26)
U.S. utilities are planning a historic investment spree to patch up an aging power grid and meet rising electricity demand for the artificial-intelligence boom. The plans could trigger additional requests for rate increases at a time when rising power costs and affordability concerns have become a bipartisan political concern.
Rezoning sought for data center campus in Clear Brook
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The Winchester Star
(04/13/26)
The application seeks to rezone three parcels totaling 220.06-acres south of Rest Church Road for a proposed development, called Virginia Technology Park. The proposal calls for 10 data center buildings and three substation pads, according to a generalized development plan in the rezoning application.
Virginia lawmakers take steps to rein in sprawling data center industry
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Fauquier Times
(04/13/26)
After years of false starts, the General Assembly took its first steps this session to rein in the sprawling data center industry, passing measures that shield consumers from rising electricity bills while empowering local officials to review the environmental impact of new projects.
Rezoning sought for data center campus in Clear Brook
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The Winchester Star
(04/13/26)
The proposed development, called Virginia Technology Park, calls for 10 data center buildings and includes three substation pads, according to a generalized development plan in the rezoning application.
Danville planners recommend code changes to allow data centers
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Chatham Star-Tribune
(04/13/26)
The Danville Planning Commission on Mon., April 13 recommended changes to the city’s development code that would allow data centers as a permitted use, as interest grows in bringing the facilities to the region.
