Virginia

Virginia's HB 1515 moratorium was carried over to the 2027 session (effectively dead for 2026), and HB 2084 directing the SCC to review data center rate classifications was enacted. The months-long budget standoff over the roughly $1.6 billion data center sales tax exemption ended in late June: the General Assembly passed a ~$205 billion biennial budget on June 22, 2026 (Senate 23-16, House 71-22) that retained the exemption but added a first-of-its-kind energy consumption tax on data centers of $0.011 per kWh consumed monthly, capped at $600 million per year to the general fund. Governor Spanberger proposed budget amendments — including new water-conservation requirements for future data centers — which the legislature approved on June 29, and she signed the budget on June 30, 2026, ending the impasse before the July 1 fiscal deadline. Virginia remains the world's largest data center market. Local activity continued into late July: on July 21, 2026 Loudoun County asked the State Corporation Commission to stay its approval of a Dominion Energy transmission line while settlement talks with Dominion and the school system proceed, and on July 22 the Pittsylvania County Board approved a resolution supporting STACK Infrastructure's $100 billion Berry Hill megasite campus — roughly 2,990 acres to be built out over 15 to 30 years. In a July 31, 2026 order made public in early August, the State Corporation Commission ruled that large-load data centers must pay for transmission facilities built solely to serve them — costs previously spread across all customers through the Rider T-1 line item — resolving a dispute over roughly $1.5 billion in Dominion Energy transmission spending and cutting the average residential monthly increase from about $2.90 to $0.94. Dominion has 90 days to file a new cost-assignment proposal. Local restriction also hardened: Chesapeake's City Council unanimously approved a zoning ordinance on August 19, 2026 limiting data centers to conditional uses in industrial zones, banning groundwater use, closing by-right development loopholes and removing the Fentress Overlay exception, with an eight-month application pause still in effect and nearly 40 residents testifying. Loudoun County supervisors voted 6-1 in July to draft a temporary moratorium, with a vote set for September 15, while Amazon filed a by-right site plan for four buildings on the former GWU campus to bypass planning commission review. In Franklin County, the Project Flash campus was cancelled in mid-August after developer negotiations failed amid opposition from more than 40 speakers. Henry County adopted a strict Data Center District ordinance on August 25, 2026, requiring rezoning plus a special use permit, 1,000-foot setbacks from non-industrial properties, a 50 dBA noise limit, closed-loop cooling only, and mandatory water-use studies. In September 2026, Christiansburg's Town Council voted 6-0 to require conditional use permits for all data centers, ending by-right status in industrial zones. Prince William County's Planning Commission voted on September 10, 2026 to recommend ending by-right data center development — requiring special use permits with public hearings and shrinking the data center overlay district — ahead of a September 22 Board of Supervisors hearing, and Loudoun supervisors are preparing amendments to pause new applications and eliminate by-right permitting, with debate expected October 6. On September 22, 2026 the Prince William County Board of Supervisors voted 8-0 to end by-right data center development countywide — facilities outside designated opportunity zones now need Special Use Permits, and the overlay district shrinks from about 9,700 acres to roughly 3,641 — a landmark shift in one of the state's largest data center markets. Chesterfield County deferred for a second time (to November 18) a vote on using data center tax revenue to cut the county's car tax. On September 18, 2026 Governor Spanberger signed Executive Order 22 establishing a Data Center Accountability Framework, directing state agencies to develop evaluation tools and designating the Eastern Virginia Groundwater Management Area (including Suffolk) as a cooling water scarcity area. Suffolk's Planning Commission voted 8-0 in mid-September to recommend prohibiting data centers as a primary use in all zoning districts, with a City Council vote set for October 21. In October 2026 Sen. Russet Perry (D-Loudoun), joined by Sen. Danica Roem, prefiled SB 843 for the 2027 session: a three-year statewide moratorium that would bar localities, DEQ and the State Corporation Commission from approving data center building permits — and distribution lines or on-site power serving only data centers — from July 1, 2027 until July 2030, to give lawmakers time to write rules for the industry. Gov. Spanberger has not backed a moratorium, pointing instead to her Data Center Accountability Framework (EO 22); more moratorium bills are expected before the January session. Loudoun County supervisors deferred to November 17, 2026 a vote on a 12-month pause on data center and substation applications (retroactive to September 15 and covering 33 pending applications), after the county attorney advised a full moratorium would not be legal.