Executive order puts the kibosh on NDAs, limits permitting, and calls for stiffer environmental protections
Virginia is not just for lovers, but is also for datacenters, hosting more than anywhere else in the world. However, the growth could be slowing as Governor Abigail Spanberger issued an executive order on Friday cracking down on bit barn builds in the state.
“In the years before I took office, datacenters came to Virginia and the Commonwealth did not have a clear or coordinated plan to address their impacts on Virginians … That changes today,” Spanberger said in a statement.
The executive order is part of a broader datacenter accountability framework that calls for greater transparency, a ban on nondisclosure agreements, limits on permitting, and more stringent environmental controls.
Spanberger argues that existing policy lacked the precision necessary to hold bit barn builders accountable, and that the order is necessary to protect residents.
In addition to greater transparency, the broader framework would require local approval for datacenters exceeding 25 megawatts and remove future large datacenters from the expedited permitting process, while the order calls on government officials to establish criteria to distinguish between responsible datacenter developments and those that would negatively impact residents or the environment.
Speaking of the environment, the order would limit the use of water-intensive cooling towers in areas suffering from water scarcity, and encourage datacenter operators to either retrofit existing backup generators to reduce emissions or switch to battery storage, fuel cells, and other clean energy sources.
Friday's order comes just days after the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors backed a plan to pause final action on certain new datacenter and substation applications for up to 12 months. Loudoun County is home to one of the highest concentrations of datacenters in the state.
Opposition to datacenter development across the US is on the rise amid growing concerns over the server farms' impact on air quality, noise pollution, water use, and residents' electric bills.
In Tennessee, Elon Musk's Colossus 2 datacenter is powered in part by 27 gas turbines across the state line in Mississippi, which are now the subject of an NAACP lawsuit alleging violations of the Clean Air Act.
Meanwhile, some states have gone even further and outright blocked the development of new datacenters while local governments get a better handle on their potential impacts.
In July, New York became the first state to temporarily halt datacenter buildouts exceeding 50 megawatts as part of an executive order signed by Governor Kathy Hochul.
A month later, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro issued an executive order blocking datacenter permit applications unless they made legally binding commitments to abide by the Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Development (GRID) requirements.
Much like Virginia’s executive order, these rules seek to ensure residents don’t end up footing the bill for grid improvements built based on speculative demand. ®