A measure that would have required developers to study proposed data centers’ impacts on their surroundings has died, at least for this year.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin, after a back-and-forth with the General Assembly, vetoed the bill late last week.
Youngkin wrote in his veto on Friday that data center decisions belong in the localities where they are proposed. Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, said Monday that his legislation would have benefited those localities by providing important information.
Ebbin’s SB 1449 and an identical bill, HB 1601 from Del. Josh Thomas, D-Prince William County, both passed their respective bodies, and the legislature combined them to send to Youngkin’s desk.
The final version would have impacted data centers and other facilities requiring at least 100 megawatts of power. The bill would have required site assessments examining sound volume within 500 feet of schools and residences, along with measuring potential effects on ground and surface water, agricultural resources, parks, registered historic sites and forest land on or around proposed facilities.
Ebbin said that he and Thomas will work together again next year to bring back the legislation. Youngkin, who Virginia law limits to one term, will be out of office by then.
The General Assembly sent the combined version to Youngkin on March 11. The governor recommended adding a reenactment clause — meaning that the legislature would have to vote on it again next year for it to pass — and said that the requirements for developers should instead be options.
The Senate rejected his recommendations and sent the bill back to Youngkin, who vetoed it.
Youngkin, repeating lines from his State of the Commonwealth address, wrote in his veto that local governments, not the General Assembly, should be making such decisions, based on their specific circumstances. An analysis done for the state shows that data centers support about “74,000 jobs, $5.5 billion in labor income, and $9.1 billion to [gross domestic product] annually,” and Virginia should not make laws that would allow other states to surpass it as “the data center capital of the world,” he added.
Ebbin said that data center industry representatives told him that they did not ask for the veto.
“The governor is misguided in thinking that localities shouldn’t have the benefit of information about how a large project could impact their locality in terms of sound or water or historic resources or otherwise,” Ebbin said.
He added: “The governor’s team doesn’t do a very good job of analyzing bills and public policy, and one would have hoped that over four years he would have had time to learn how the process works, but he doesn’t seem to have grasped the process, as we come to the conclusion of this term.”
Youngkin, in his veto note, wrote to defend his recommended amendments.
“My proposed amendments preserved the spirit of the bill while allowing localities flexibility,” Youngkin wrote. “The General Assembly’s rejection of those amendments leaves behind a rigid framework that could chill investment and hinder economic development.”
At least 20 data center-related bills came from a bipartisan group of legislators in January. Few survived either the General Assembly or the veto pen.
Among those passing into law were two from Del. David Reid, D-Loudoun County. He introduced HB 1822, which will require the State Corporation Commission to consider using advanced conductors to construct transmission lines of 138 kilovolts or more. Reid’s HB 1821 will allow large energy customers to claim credits for solar, wind and battery purchases through the state’s accelerated renewable buyers program. Currently, that portion of the Virginia Clean Economy Act only provides credits for producers of electricity,
The General Assembly combined bills from Del. Mark Sickles, D-Fairfax County, (HB 2644) and Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, (SB 1197) allowing electric cooperatives to create for-profit subsidiary companies for retail energy services sales to customers requiring more than 90 megawatts.
HB 2084, by Del. Irene Shin, D-Fairfax County, directs the State Corporation Commission to determine whether Appalachian Power and Dominion Energy have reasonably classified customers for rates, charges, schedules and other issues. Depending on its determination, the SCC could consider creating new customer classifications.
[Disclosure: Dominion is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.]
