Dear Coalition Friends and Supporters,
We’ve done the work and made it EASY for you to support CRITICAL legislation being considered in this year’s General Assembly — 15 of the 56+ bills which address YOUR concerns regarding data center industrialization and proliferation.
Listed below are the key bills needing your support, with a few bullet points describing why they should be passed in the General Assembly. –> Please click on EACH link below for EACH of the 15 bills and add your signature!<–
The legislators need to know YOU SUPPORT these — Hit EVERY Blue link!
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TEMPORARY MORATORIUM ON DATA CENTERS
HB 1515
THIS ONE NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT! **This bill has now gone to the House Rules Committee.** We have added a NEW click-to-send email so that you can add your signature, telling the delegates you want them to vote YES.**
- This bill will put in place a temporary moratorium on any new local data center approvals until existing pending requests for interconnection to the grid have been fulfilled.
- Provides a critically needed pause OF anything additional to allow for the orderly and fair connection of existing pending load.
- This will not stop data center development, but will prevent more projects piling up in an already flooded queue.
- A moratorium will also reduce land speculation for data center development by sending a clear signal to the industry that there is a deficit of power here in Virginia.
- Offers a practical and reasonable approach that will help to reduce speculative and sprawling data center development in the Virginia real estate market.
- Go HERE if you want to know more.
Add your name supporting this bill HERE.
Also — If you haven’t already, PLEASE add your signature to these other key bills below which are coming to votes in Committees or Subcommittees VERY SOON!
ELECTRIC LOAD – CERTIFICATE OF OPERATION – 3 BILLS:
HB 155 / SB 619 / HB 1151
- Data center projects’ electricity demands impact all of Virginia’s ratepayers as well as the energy grid’s ability to provide reliable power to homes and businesses.
- Data center approvals made at the local level have not considered impacts on the grid, reliability, and ratepayers, or conflicts with state policies and regional impacts on the environment and public health.
- These bills require state-level review for new high-load facilities BEFORE they begin operating.
- These bills help to protect ratepayers: Protect grid reliability, Prevent higher electricity bills, Create smart, statewide oversight, Encourage cleaner energy solutions, Align growth with Virginia’s clean energy goals, and Protect the public interest.
DIESEL GENERATORS – 1 BILL:
HB 507
- This bill Requires More Public Disclosure, Monitoring, and Higher Standards on Data Center Carbon Dioxide-Emitting Backup Generators
- Virginia has seen a rapid increase in large data center development, along with a quiet but significant rise in diesel backup generators approved for “non-emergency” use. These generators are increasingly located near homes, schools, and neighborhoods.
- Northern Virginia (Loudoun and Prince William County) now have over 10,000 diesel generators surrounding data centers, producing 20 GW of power. These generators emit carbon dioxide and other harmful pollutants and can operate far more frequently than the public was originally led to believe.
- HB 507 responds to this growing public health concern by placing clear, reasonable limits on how these generators are used and improving transparency and oversight.
TRANSPARENCY – WATER USE – 3 BILLS:
HB 589 / SB 553 / HB 496
- These bills Require Water Use Reporting by Operating Data Centers.
- The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, whose responsibility it is to ensure safe and stable water supplies are available for all Virginians, does not receive data related to how much water is used by data centers on a monthly/annual basis.
- Few data centers have their own water supply (permitted/unpermitted), therefore they are not subject to report. They receive water from municipal suppliers which results in water provided to data centers not being properly disclosed.
- DEQ is working with localities to create Regional Water Supply Plans that rely on having a complete set of data, including how much water is being used by data centers
- The data center boom in Virginia (data centers can use millions of gallons of water a day to cool their servers) comes at a time when groundwater supplies are dwindling, and surface waters are experiencing increasingly variable flows.
SALES TAX ON DATA CENTERS – 2 BILLS:
HB 897 / SB 465
- These bills Tie Commitments to Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency to the Retail Sales and Use Tax Exemption for Data Centers.
- The data center tax break is by far Virginia’s largest tax abatement program. With easily-fulfilled conditions, last year alone Virginia handed out $1.6 billion in tax breaks to data center companies, including some of the most valuable companies in the world.
- Virginia needs to ensure that it only grants tax breaks to data center operators who not only align with existing policies and priorities, but are actively helping Virginia achieve its goals.
- These new conditions would help ensure that data centers are (a) doing their part to help reduce the strain on Virginia’s grid, (b) advancing our clean energy transition, and (c) taking steps to mitigate other harmful effects, like local air pollution from backup generators.
DEMAND RESPONSE PROGRAM – 3 BILLS:
HB 284 / SB 371 / SB 43
- Direct the SCC to establish electric demand flexibility programs for high energy demand customers.
- Have the potential to produce significant customer savings, by reducing total system requirements.
- Data center growth is straining Virginia’s grid and is already causing customer bills to increase.
RATEPAYER PROTECTIONS – 2 BILLS:
HB 658 / SB 339
- Direct the SCC to Initiate Cost Allocation Proceedings to Ensure Other Customers are Not Unreasonably Subsidizing Data Center Customers
- Virginia has become the global epicenter of data centers, and the explosive growth of artificial intelligence is pushing our electric system toward an affordability crisis.
- A single AI data center campus can consume a large city’s amount of electricity, forcing utilities to build new power plants, transmission lines, and substations at an unprecedented pace.
- Without strong guardrails, those costs are passed on to everyday Virginians through ever-increasing electric bills.
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You can also go to this page to click on EACH orange ‘SIGN’ button and complete your information for each of these 15 key bills. (Just click the back arrow at the top (highlighted in yellow below) after completing each one, and do the next one.)
If you want to know the complete information for any of the 56+ data center related bills currently in the General Assembly, access the bill tracker list on the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) site: 2026 Data Center Reform Legislation – The Piedmont Environmental Council. Please reference their complete list if you want to send your own email on any additional bills!
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Come to TOMORROW’S Town Hall!
Register here and join your friends and neighbors TOMORROW: http://subramanyam.house.gov/Events
January 31
2:30 – 3:45 PM
Gainesville High School
13150 University Blvd. – Gainesville
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Don’t Forget!
->Get on the bus to Richmond February 9th: Data Center Reform Lobby Day. Sign up NOW!
There ARE still some seats left! Don’t miss out on YOUR opportunity to be a part of a movement that history will surely remember. You may be feeling it’s not worth it to go to Richmond, or to send emails — but the reality is that showing up DOES have an impact. Whether it’s getting a bill passed this year, or bringing visibility to the legislature, the media, and the general public that citizens aren’t going to stop until needed changes are made – now, and the next year, and the next year…
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