(The Center Square) – Pressure is building on Gov. Abigail Spanberger to support a statewide pause on new data center approvals as Virginia continues debating the industry’s effects on the electric grid, water resources and utility costs.
Virginia Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Chesterfield, released a 30-second campaign ad Tuesday renewing his call for a moratorium.
“I’ve called on Governor Spanberger to issue a moratorium on all new data center approvals across Virginia,” Sturtevant says in the ad.
He says data centers are “straining Virginia’s power grid, using millions of gallons of water, raising families’ electric bills while big tech lays off thousands of Americans.”
The ad contrasts the noise of a data center with a quiet Virginia landscape before closing with the message, “That’s Virginia, and it’s worth protecting.”
Spanberger has not supported a statewide moratorium and has instead pointed to measures aimed at making data centers bear more of the costs associated with their growth.
Virginia regulators have moved to require large-load customers, including data centers, to bear more of the transmission costs tied directly to serving them. The State Corporation Commission has approved a framework intended to make large-load customers fund direct-connect transmission facilities built specifically to serve them.
Virginia also began imposing a new electricity consumption tax on data centers July 1. The tax is set at $0.011 per kilowatt-hour, or 1.1 cents, through June 2028.
The debate has increasingly played out at the local level.
Several Virginia localities have considered pauses, moratoriums or tighter restrictions on new data center projects as residents and officials weigh concerns over noise, land use, power demand and water consumption.
Sturtevant argues those local decisions do not fully address the broader effects of continued expansion.
“The consequences do not stop at county lines,” he said in a statement accompanying the ad. “A local zoning vote cannot answer what continued expansion means for Virginia’s power supply, water resources and electric bills.”
He is calling for new approvals to be paused while Virginia determines whether additional projects should be permitted and under what conditions.
“Governor Spanberger should hit pause before Virginia makes more commitments,” Sturtevant said.
This post was originally published on The Center Square.
