Virginia will no longer let data center developers sign secrecy deals with state officials or skip local review on large projects.
Governor Abigail Spanberger signed Executive Order 22 on September 18, combining a data center accountability framework with a new rapid-response task force on AI. Under the order, nondisclosure agreements for commercial data center projects are barred for executive branch staff, by-right approval ends, and any facility drawing more than 25 megawatts needs local approval.
Large projects also leave the state’s fast-track permitting lane, and site-development subsidies for data centers stop. Noise rules are to be expedited, and backup diesel generation gets both a cumulative-impact review and a push toward cleaner replacements.
Ratepayers are the other target. The framework asks utilities to assign a fairer share of transmission and generation costs to large loads and wants developers to commit money earlier.
Spanberger said data centers previously arrived without any coordinated plan for residents’ bills, water, land or air. The task force, meanwhile, will examine workforce displacement and privacy harms and determine how existing state law reaches AI. Proposed legislation follows in the 2027 session.
Because Virginia holds the world’s densest concentration of data centers, other states tend to copy its permitting rules.
