Virginia Senate President Pro Tem Louise Lucas told News4 in an exclusive interview that the commonwealth has let the data industry run out of control — and she’s promising sweeping new changes to reel it in.
At the same time, local counties are taking their own action to limit new data centers.
Tuesday night, Loudoun County took the next step toward a possible temporary moratorium, and next week, Prince William County will vote to repeal zoning rules for one area of the county where data centers can be built without approval.
“And we have real issues where data centers are allowed by-right near homes and schools, and this is an attempt to tamp down on that,” said Prince William County Board Chair Deshundra Jefferson.
Jefferson said the change would require any new data center to get special approval from the board amid concerns over growth and impact to utilities.
“We have transmission lines that are going to be going through our county that are primarily gonna service Loudoun. That’s creating an issue for us, and that’s one of the unintended consequences of data centers,” Jefferson said.
Unintended consequences that Lucas said are a top priority statewide as she sat down with News4 near a data center.
“Right on top of this soccer field, right on top of the tennis court, right on top of this children’s playground. We deserve better for our citizens,” Lucas said. “For God’s sake, this is unconscionable. I don’t know how we let it get this far out of hand.”
Lucas said there’s bipartisan support on several new bills to implement sweeping new regulations on data centers.
“They have got to pay their fair share, that’s number one, but they’ve got to deal with these environmental issues that are driving our residents crazy,” she said.
Lucas said she intends to offer the new bills as an omnibus, meaning to pass any of the bills, Gov. Abigail Spanberger would have to sign them all.
When asked how her conversations with the governor are going this summer, she said, “I haven’t had any conversations with the governor this summer.”
She also said, “We need to have a conversation before the 2027 session or it’s not gonna go well.”
The governor has long said she supports data centers paying their fair share, but she hasn’t supported other changes, like repealing data centers’ sales tax exemption that Lucas said is leaving billions of potential tax dollars on the table — saving the massive tech companies, she said, at the cost of average Virginians.
