Virginia reins in data centres and stands up an AI task force

Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger signed Executive Order 22 on Friday, describing it as the most aggressive framework for data centre accountability in the country, and announced the state's first artificial intelligence task force. The order bars nondisclosure agreements on data centre projects for state entities and employees, and the accompanying legislative wish list points to extending that ban to commercial projects across Virginia. It does not stop new data centres being built, and it does not touch the tax exemptions the industry has fought to keep.

What the order does

The NDA ban covers state government rather than local officials, who have signed secrecy agreements as part of some data centre deals, and the governor's framework sets out an intention to legislate statewide. Among the priorities laid out ahead of the 2027 General Assembly session are limiting by-right approval and requiring local approval for any data centre drawing more than 25 megawatts, alongside measures on energy costs, grid stability, environmental protection and workforce. The AI task force is to look at risks around data privacy, cybersecurity and workforce displacement. Spanberger, speaking in Richmond, listed the pressures driving the order: energy bills, projects negotiated in secret, long-term effects on clean air and water, and an industry that has grown very quickly on the back of artificial intelligence. Virginia calls itself the data centre capital of the world, and the framework lands in a midterm election year after a budget fight over exemptions worth about two billion dollars a year.

Nobody is entirely happy

Reactions were divided along predictable lines and, more interestingly, within the governor's own party. State Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas said the plan does not end those exemptions, having pushed to retire them eight years early. The Piedmont Environmental Council acknowledged positive elements but said the framework does not address the immediacy of the crisis and called for a moratorium on development, noting that it mostly sets standards for new sites rather than the ones already built or in the pipeline. Republican House of Delegates Minority Leader Terry Kilgore called the plan internally contradictory, arguing that it encourages data centres to bring their own power while restricting the on-site gas and backup generation they would need. The Data Center Coalition said it shares the goal of responsible development but wants detail, and Clean Virginia's Brennan Gilmore called it a meaningful step forward while also backing a pause.

Our opinion

The most revealing line in the order is the narrowness of the NDA ban. Secrecy clauses have been signed by local officials, not by state employees, so an order that binds only the executive branch leaves the actual problem sitting with county boards that will have to be legislated into transparency next year. The 25-megawatt threshold matters for the same reason: by-right approval is how large projects slip past a public hearing, and requiring a vote above that line is a far more consequential change than anything in the task force's remit. As for the task force itself, it is a promise of scrutiny rather than scrutiny, and its value will be measured by whether it produces findings someone acts on. Virginia has spent a decade saying yes to almost every campus that asked, and the state is now negotiating the terms after the fact. The honest summary is that this is a sensible first move by a governor with limited tools, and the fight over tax exemptions is where the argument will actually be settled.