Del. Josh Thomas (D-Prince William County) said out of a package of 20 data center-related bills, his legislation was the only one to reach the governor’s desk.
MANASSAS, Va. — As you look across the field from Chris Yung Elementary School in Bristow, Virginia, the sight of a large data center construction site towering over children playing during recess is hard to miss. The industry is booming but restricting it will require more work from lawmakers.
“You can constantly hear it with a lot of trucks and a lot of stuff,” said Bristow resident Gilbert Gunn. “I think there’s too many of them going up at once.”
The data center complex will have four main facilities and a substation for Microsoft. Another nearby data center construction is underway.
Residents in the community are appealing a decision approved by supervisors to build the controversial Devlin Tech Park complex, citing noise, residential proximity and environmental concerns.
“If Prince William were to complete everything they've approved or in the pipeline, they would have 80 million square feet, which would be equivalent to two Central Parks,” Del. Josh Thomas (D-Prince William County) said.
Thomas joined a group of bipartisan lawmakers at the start of the Virginia General Assembly session to push to restrict the data center industry in Virginia, which holds the highest concentration of the tech hubs that hold servers in the world.
He said out of the 20 proposed bills related to data centers, only his legislation made it to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s desk. Youngkin has less than two weeks to sign, veto or amend the bills in front of him.
HB 1601 said before an application is approved to allow new high energy use facility aka data centers, local governments “shall require that an applicant perform and submit a site assessment to examine the sound profile of the HEUF on residential units and schools located within 500 feet.”
It also requires that a site assessment examine the effect of data centers on water, agricultural resources, parks, historic sites, and forestland.
“The state cannot tell these localities what decisions to make but what we can tell them to do is what information to consider,” said Thomas. “Before, some of them were flying blind without look at sound or where infrastructures are going to be. Now they shall conduct these reports and look at them before they make these decisions in hopes of making better decisions.”
Youngkin has yet to decide but with a major proponent of jobs and boosting revenue, he expressed support for an industry that generated $9 billion into the state economy.
Concerns about the effects of ongoing massive expansion intensified following a 12-month long nonpartisan study by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC), which projected energy demand from the giant tech hubs could increase by 183% over the next 15 years.
The report also found that residential energy bills could surge by as much as $37 per month to help support the additional infrastructure required to meet demands.