Latest news with #JoshThomas
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Report highlights community pushback stalling $64 billion in data center development nationwide
A representative for the Data Center Coalition speaks in opposition to a bill on data centers with Virginia Del. Josh Thomas (D-Prince William) and labor union representatives behind her. (Photo by Charles Paullin/Inside Climate News) As Elena Schlossberg of Prince William County, Virginia sees it, the community effort to fight the richest companies in the world seeking to build data centers began about a decade ago when opposition coalesced in the early days of the industry's development. Then, a couple of years ago, when people began to learn much more about the warehouse-like server farms proliferating at double the earlier rate, the fight strengthened with a meeting in Warrenton. 'That was where we all just started saying, 'OK, in order to fight this behemoth, we have to have some organizational process,'' Schlossberg said. 'We have to be able to communicate. We have to be able to support each other. We have to have a clearinghouse for all the information.' Schlossberg's group, the Coalition to Protect Prince William County, about 35 miles southwest of the nation's capital, teamed up with several other groups, including the Piedmont Environmental Council, the Sierra Club and the National Parks Conservation Association, and met in one of the areas facing development pressure that could now triple in the state. They formed the Virginia Data Center Reform Coalition. Such community opposition is the focal point of a recent report by Data Center Watch, a research organization tracking data center opposition. A key finding: '$64 billion in U.S. data center projects have been blocked or delayed by a growing wave of local, bipartisan opposition.' 'What was once quiet infrastructure is now a national flashpoint — and communities are pushing back,' the report says. 'This report highlights political risks and local opposition as frequent factors in data center project delays or cancellations, including community resistance, environmental concerns, and zoning issues.' As data center development explodes, the industry has faced particular challenges in Virginia, its global epicenter. Some $900 million in projects in the state have been blocked, and $45.8 billion in projects have been delayed. Yet, environmental advocates say few protections have been put in place. At the state level, dozens of bills were introduced in the Virginia General Assembly this year to enact development safeguards, but only a symbolic one about utility costs was signed into law by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Josh Levi, president of the Data Center Coalition, a trade group representing many of the tech companies developing projects in Virginia, said the group is 'committed to working collaboratively with local officials, policymakers, and regulatory bodies at every level. 'Data center companies site projects where they are permitted under local zoning ordinances, rules, and regulations, which are developed by local leaders representing their communities,' Levi said. 'The industry seeks to work collaboratively with local officials to minimize community impacts, which often includes participating in town halls and other community and public engagement opportunities.' The locations of projects getting blocked or delayed are mostly centered in the Northern Virginia suburbs and exurbs of Washington, where the internet began. The region now serves a vast federal government, defense and intelligence complex. A couple other projects highlighted in the report branch out into the Northern Neck, south of the Potomac River, and outside Richmond. Virginia is home to 13 percent of the world's data center capacity, while 70 percent of the world's internet traffic moves through computers in the state. One case study in the report highlighted the effort by Schlossberg's group, the Manassas Battlefield Trust and others to stop the $24.7 billion Digital Gateway development of a campus with 37 data centers in Prince William County near the Manassas National Battlefield Park. Another is the Bren Pointe residential community in Fairfax County, fighting a $165 million hyperscale project that would need transmission lines and a five-acre substation 60 feet from the boundary of a townhome complex. In another project in Warrenton, proposed by Amazon with an undetermined development cost, hundreds of people, including actor Robert Duvall, attended and spoke in opposition, according to FauquierNow. Legal challenges have stalled the town council's approval of the project, and during that period, council members who supported it have been voted out of office. The report noted that Republican elected officials made up 55 percent of those critical of projects, expressing concerns over the use of tax incentives. Democrats made up 45 percent of those opposing projects, largely over environmental concerns. But many elected officials are approving data centers. 'What will it take for people in positions of power to make different choices?' Schlossberg said. 'As plain as the nose on my face, data centers are impacting the integrity of our water and our air and our communities and our reliable, affordable electricity.' Ann Wheeler, former chair of the Board of Supervisors in Prince William County, declined to comment on why she lost her Democratic primary race for re-election, but stood by her choices to support the industry in today's digitally driven society. The environmental concerns used 'misinformation' as part of a campaign of BANANA, or Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone, she said, and supporting the facilities' construction meant union jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in local revenue to support social services her party has traditionally aligned with. 'They'll go in somewhere,' Wheeler said, adding her county had resources for responsible planning. 'I would rather have that tax revenue in Virginia.' The report did not feature the opposition to a proposed data center in Pittsylvania County. There, community pushback and a report commissioned by the Southern Environmental Law Center, which highlighted the health effects from on-site, fossil fuel-powered generation equipment, led to the Board of Supervisors rejecting a needed rezoning application, effectively killing the project. The report included other case studies of successful data center opposition in Indiana, Texas and Arizona. Virginia's legislative research arm, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, issued a report in December that comprehensively examined the costs of data center development. It found that data-center energy demand would roughly triple from 2023 to 2040 if development went unconstrained. Even so, the legislative protections proposed this year failed to make it across the finish line. Youngkin vetoed a bill that would have had localities require a description of substation needs and a study on the noise the facilities close to homes and schools generate, which can come from their air conditioning units, and onsite power generators. House Democrats killed a requirement for state regulators to review data center power contractsto ensure that electricity generation and transmission lines could support the need. One change that did pass requires the State Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities, to review cost allocations for data center projects between consumers and the center operators. The commission already had that authority. One Republican lawmaker, Del. Ian Lovejoy of Prince William County, pushed for ways to have the industry pay for the electric grid upgrades it necessitates. But debate on the bills married business and labor union interests, which 'usually are opposed to one another,' Lovejoy said. 'When those two groups agree on something, [there are] very difficult headwinds.' The General Assembly was also leery of interfering with local land use decisions in an election year, Lovejoy said. All 100 delegates are up for election this year, along with the governor. Democrats control the chamber 51-49. The state Senate, also controlled by Democrats, 21-19, has elections in two years. A similar debate driven by community opposition to new solar projects also took place this year in the legislature. Community opposition to data centers, Lovejoy said, 'is going to affect more and more people when they build data centers directly next to houses. That's the cautionary tale. Look at Loudoun [County], look at Prince William. Don't build them next to schools, don't build them next to houses. Make sure they're set back properly, or you're going to have the same issues that we're having.' Schlossberg said members of her group traveled a couple of hours down to Richmond one early morning during the legislative session earlier in the year. They were there to lobby for the swath of data-center bills as part of the group's increasing battle at the local, state and federal level that is costing the industry money and creating a community of opponents. 'I think it's important to really talk about the building of community,' Schlossberg said. 'In a digital world, I think we have seen people who have never felt lonelier. And I think that's been a really important positive outcome, is that people connect.' This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Facing data center sprawl and an energy crisis, Virginia lawmakers leap into action. Just kidding.
In an aerial view, an Amazon Web Services data center is shown situated near single-family homes on July 17, 2024 in Stone Ridge, Virginia. (Photo by) This was supposed to be the year the General Assembly did something about data centers. Two years ago, it crushed the first tentative efforts to regulate construction, choosing instead to goose the pace. Last year it again killed all attempts at regulation, punting in favor of a study by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC). JLARC's report was released in December to a soundtrack of alarm bells ringing. Unconstrained data center growth is projected to triple electricity demand in Virginia over just the next 15 years, outstripping the state's ability to build new generation and driving up utility bills for everyone. On top of the energy problem, the industry's growth is taxing water supplies and spawning billions of dollars worth of transmission infrastructure projects needed to serve the industry. Yet the most popular strategy for addressing the biggest energy crisis ever to face Virginia is to continue the status quo – that is to say, to keep the data center sprawl sprawling. Of the two dozen or so bills introduced this year that would put restrictions on growth, manage its consequences, or impose transparency requirements, barely a handful have survived to the session's halfway point this week. The surviving initiatives do address important aspects of local siting, ratepayer protection and energy, though they will face efforts to further weaken them in the second half of the session. Even if the strongest bills pass, though, they will not rein in the industry, provide comprehensive oversight, require transparency or address serious resource adequacy problems. HB1601 from Del. Josh Thomas, D-Gainesville, is the most meaningful bill to address the siting of data centers. It requires site assessments for facilities over 100 MW to examine the sound profile of facilities near residential communities and schools. It also allows localities to require site assessments to examine effects on water and agricultural resources, parks, historic sites or forests. In addition, before approving a rezoning, special exception or special use permit, the locality must require the utility that is serving the facility to describe any new electric generating units, substations and transmission voltage that will be required. Existing sites that are seeking to expand by less than 100 MW are excluded. HB1601 passed the House 57-40, with several Republicans joining all Democrats in favor. SB1449 from Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, is similar to HB1601 but does not include the language on electricity and transmission lines. SB1449 passed the Senate 33-6. Typically, when the House and the Senate each pass similar but different bills, they each try to make the other chamber's bill look like theirs, then work out the differences in a conference committee. If that happens here, the House will amend SB1449 to conform it to HB1601 before passing it. The Senate might amend the House bill to match its own or they could recognize that HB1601 is better and pass it as is rather than watering it down to match their own; otherwise, the bills will have to go to conference. Only two ratepayer protection bills passed. SB960 from Sen. Russet Perry, D-Leesburg, is the better of the two. It requires the SCC to determine if non-data center customers are subsidizing data centers or incurring costs for new infrastructure that is needed only because of data center demand; if so, the SCC is to take steps to eliminate or minimize the cross-subsidy. The bill incorporates a similar measure from Sen. Richard Stuart, R-Westmoreland. It passed the Senate by a healthy 26-13, but leaves the question of why those 13 Republicans voted against a bill designed to protect residential customers from higher rates. Over in the House, HB2084 from Del. Irene Shin, D-Herndon, started out similar to Perry's bill but was weakened in committee to the point that its usefulness is questionable. It now merely requires the SCC to use its existing authority during a regular proceeding sometime in the next couple of years to determine whether Dominion and Appalachian Power are using reasonable customer classifications in setting rates, and if not, whether new classifications are reasonable. It passed the House 61-35. Hopefully the House will see the wisdom of adopting the Senate's bill, but again, these could end up going to conference. The only data center legislation related to energy use to have made it this far is SB1047 from Sen. Danica Roem, D-Manassas. It requires utilities to implement demand-response programs for customers with a power demand of more than 25 MW, which could help relieve grid constraints. It passed the Senate 21-17. The data center industry and its labor allies were successful in killing all other data center initiatives, including the only bills that dealt with the energy issues head-on. This included legislation that basically called on the industry to live up to its sustainability claims. SB1196 from Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, and HB2578, sponsored by Del. Rip Sullivan, D-Fairfax, would have conditioned state tax subsidies on data centers meeting conditions for energy efficiency, zero-carbon energy and cleaner back-up generators. Sullivan's bill also set up pathways for data center developers to meet the energy requirements and work toward cleaner operations. None of this mattered. Republicans were united in their determination not to put anything in the way of continued data center sprawl, and they were joined by a number of Democrats who were persuaded that requiring corporations to act responsibly threatens construction jobs. HB2578 died in subcommittee, with Democrats Charniele Herring and Alfonso Lopez joining Republicans in voting to table the bill. SB1196 was never even granted a committee hearing. Yet the idea of adding conditions to the tax subsidies is not dead. Deeds put in a budget amendment to secure the efficiency requirements that had been in his bill. His amendment takes on a House budget amendment requested by Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, that extends the tax subsidies out to 2050 from their current sunset date of 2035, with no new conditions whatsoever. It seems like a reasonable ask for the tech industry to meet some efficiency requirements in exchange for billions of dollars in subsidies and the raiding of Virginia's water and energy supplies. Indeed, the industry could have had it worse. Stuart had introduced a Senate bill to end the tax subsidies Virginia provides to data centers altogether. Alas, like several other more ambitious bills intended to bring accountability to the data center industry, it failed to even get a hearing in committee. Now, maybe Virginia will get lucky — or unlucky, depending on how you look at it — and the data center boom will go bust. The flurry of excitement around China's bid to provide artificial intelligence at a fraction of the cost of American tech joins other news items about efficiency breakthroughs that could mean the tech industry needs far fewer data centers, using far less energy and water. That would be good for the planet, not to mention Virginia ratepayers, but it would leave a lot of empty buildings, upend local budgets, and strand potentially billions of dollars in new generation and transmission infrastructure. A little preparation and contingency planning would seem to have been the wiser course.
