The calls to stop data center growth in the data center capital of the world are getting louder as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle get behind calls for a statewide moratorium.
Some lawmakers said Virginia has to stop approving new data centers altogether until the impacts on water, electricity and other issues are figured out first.
In July, News4 exclusively reported on a massive electrical grid issue when a high voltage transmission line in Ashburn went offline and some data centers elected to switch to backup power. That jump off the grid sent a ripple through the grid that caused power to spike and dip from Chicago to Boston to Miami and resulted in lights flickering in millions of homes.
Experts told News4 that this type of event could cause a blackout across the entire east coast.
News4’s report was one of several issues cited by Republican State Sen. Glen Sturtevant, who this week called on Gov. Abigail Spanberger to issue an immediate moratorium on all new data center development.
“The question is no longer simply how to regulate more data centers. It is whether Virginia can accommodate data center development at all,” he said, in part.
Then Saturday afternoon, Democrat and Senate President Pro Tem Louise Lucas said, “Senator Sturtevant is right that the status quo cannot continue.”
She went on to say, “A statewide moratorium is a serious proposal that deserves serious consideration.”
The bipartisanship on this issue doesn’t end there. Two other state senators — Republican Richard Stuart and Democrat Russet Perry — issued a joint letter to the Governor urging Spanberger to call the legislature into a special session to address the state’s groundwater supply. Specifically, regarding a recent report from the Department of Environmental Quality that showed the state’s groundwater levels are under quote “serious and immediate strain” due in part to the massive water usage by data centers.
News4 reached out to Spanberger’s office and has not heard back.
The Data Center Coalition, a pro-data center industry lobbying group, said, “Moratoriums on data centers send a signal that an area is closed for business, both for data centers and for other significant economic development projects.”
