The question of how to deal with the ever-growing population of data centers has taken center stage.

In today’s political environment, there are not many issues that can find a consensus of a broad majority of the ideological spectrum. The question of how to deal with the ever-growing population of data centers has taken center stage, however, as tech companies seek low-cost areas to build massive computing centers to feed a growing demand for artificial intelligence. Virginia is home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers, and Virginians are understandably incensed with concerns over these centers’ electricity and water usage and how that usage affects residents of the Commonwealth. One idea that has garnered bipartisan support is a moratorium — or pause — on new data center construction.

The two most recent states to enact moratoriums — New York and Texas — are cases in point for how widely embraced such a solution is. A pause for Virginia would not completely solve the challenges that Virginia’s data centers pose. The benefit of a moratorium, though, is to provide regulators and lawmakers the much-needed time to implement necessary guidelines for continued data center construction. For the sake of Virginia residents, the General Assembly must immediately implement such a policy.

The idea of a data center moratorium gained steam recently with State Senator Glen Sturtevant’s letter to Gov. Abigail Spanberger exhorting her to issue an executive order halting approval of new data centers in Virginia. The moratorium he advocates for is a policy sorely needed. Take data centers’ staggering effects on Virginia’s public utilities. On the morning of July 22, the power grid throughout the eastern part of the country experienced a worrying and massive disturbance. The cause? Data centers in Northern Virginia voluntarily switched off the electrical grid after a power line malfunction. Indeed, the electricity consumption of these centers is so massive that Virginia cannot make any drastic changes to their use of the grid without affecting vast swaths of the nation. When focused on Virginia, some planned data centers would outmatch even the State’s largest nuclear reactors in terms of power usage, working at five to 10 times the power of the largest existing data centers. Yet, even if the electrical infrastructure were robust enough to support this massive injection of demand, Virginia residents will find themselves subsidizing centers’ need for ever-increasing quantities of energy. The General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission found that the typical Dominion Energy customer can pay anywhere from $14 to $37 more per month on their electric bill by 2040 as a direct result of data center electricity usage.

Beyond the risks posed by their incessant need for power, data centers severely strain Virginia’s dwindling water supply. Data centers require vast amounts of water to cool the computer chips located within the system, and a large source of this coolant is the freshwater aquifers found within Virginia. The water that is used, however, is not unlimited. Virginia’s Department of Environmental Equality found that the State’s largest aquifer in Eastern Virginia, the Potomac Aquifer, cannot support any more “industrial withdrawals” — or water used for cooling data centers. This report, commissioned in March 2024 by the legislature, was only released after a records request by the Associated Press, ostensibly owing to both the Youngkin and Spanberger administrations’ reluctance to douse the data center explosion in Virginia. On top of this, Virginia is in a severe drought, one affecting not only the relatively-water rich regions of the east and north, but the arid west of the State as well. At a time when Virginia residents need water more than ever, it is imperative that what water Virginia does have is prioritized for flesh-and-blood residents rather than machines used to underscore a corporate bottom line.

Both of these public utilities crises underscore the need to slow down and develop practical solutions to the resource and economic worries of data centers. This can only be achieved if data center construction is halted via a moratorium. Virginia’s data center construction boom is rapidly outpacing the infrastructure needed to sustain it, and lawmakers have been caught flat-footed. Infrastructure has not been upgraded, unsustainable resource consumption has not been curbed and costs to unsuspecting residents have not been defrayed. These and other issues must be addressed with the time given by a moratorium.

The moratorium proposed by Sturtevant is necessary, but we believe that, rather than coming from executive fiat, a more responsible and worthwhile approach would be for the General Assembly to legislate it into existence. The Legislature is able to fix many more of the problems with data centers through its lawmaking power than Spanberger can command through an executive order. A law passed by the people’s representatives, allowing for robust policymaking, is always preferable to the will of one person exercised through a limited tool. Given the extreme bipartisanship of the issue, we have no doubt such a law could come to pass. For her part, Spanberger should, under her authority as Governor, call a special session of the Legislature to address the growing crisis. If she is unwilling, two-thirds of the Legislature can force her. Such a session would also give the General Assembly an opportunity to amend its unfortunate budget that extended data centers’ sales tax exemption while accepting Spanberger’s proposals to remove crucial resource conservation measures.

While Spanberger has yet to make it sufficiently clear — despite her attempts in a recent op-ed — she takes the worries posed by the data center boom seriously, Virginia has demonstrated that it does. The General Assembly and the Governor should utilize their responsibility to protect Virginians to halt data center construction, allowing time for effective policy measures to be put in place. If Virginia does not hit the brakes now, residents will be the ones paying for the crash.

The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board is composed of the Executive Editor, the Editor-in-Chief, the two Opinion Editors, two Senior Associates and an Opinion Columnist. The board can be reached at eb@cavalierdaily.com.

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