Category: Data centers
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Virginia’s #3 for Business Rank Argues for Stability, Not Change
by Derrick A. Max Key Takeaways: Key Quote: “Virginia’s No. 3 ranking is a credit to the Commonwealth’s inherited strengths, not a blank check for Richmond to tax more, mandate more, and make it harder to do business here.” Virginia’s climb in CNBC’s newest “Top States for Business” ranking — moving from No. 4 back to…
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Pittsylvania County Breathes Sigh of Relief
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Colorado-based company, Stack Infrastructure (Stack), has announced that it will move forward with its plans to build a giant data center complex in Pittsylvania County. As was reported earlier in Bacon’s Rebellion, the company had made its decision to locate in Virginia contingent on the state continuing its exemption of computer…
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Spanberger, Assembly Pass on Meddling With Dominion Sale
by Steve Haner The most important energy outcome of recent legislative wrestling over Virginia’s energy-focused state budget is what it didn’t include. Governor Abigail Spanberger (D) and the legislators did not meddle with the plan for Florida’s NextEra Energy to acquire Dominion Energy. The application for that transaction (it is not a merger, but…
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Coop Customers (But Not NOVEC) May Now Get RGGI Rebates
by Steve Haner Governor Abigail Spanberger’s proposed amendment to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative rebate system will give most but not all residential customers of Virginia’s rural electric cooperatives a shot at some cash back. The Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative is still in the RGGI wilderness. The feeding frenzy over the RGGI carbon tax dollars,…
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Assembly To Data Centers: “Here’s Your Hat, There’s the Door”
by Steve Haner The energy regulatory provisions buried in the final conference report on Virginia’s 2026-2028 budget, approved by the General Assembly Monday, are as complex and detailed as any of the energy bills reviewed earlier during the regular session. They are also just as damaging. The data center industry was a particular target. The…
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Data Centers Will Pay Same Tax on Solar Power as on Coal
by Steve Haner The new energy tax being imposed on Virginia’s data center industry effective July 1, assuming the new state budget conference report passes next week, is totally ecumenical. The same tax is imposed on electrons from a solar panel or wind turbine as is imposed on electrons from coal. A data center that…
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The Source of All Evil: Data Centers!
Jefferson Forum’s President Derrick Max puts out a Sunday morning summary that only some of you probably see, and I cannot really link to it for you. But today’s email had a useful and entertaining riff on the ongoing efforts to demonize Virginia’s data center industry, a clearly coordinated hit job from the left and…
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Another SCC Warning That VCEA Will Fail and Cost a Fortune
by Steve Haner The Virginia State Corporation Commission, consisting of three judges all picked by the General Assembly while Democrats were in control, has delivered another stern warning that the Virginia Clean Economy Act is unworkable and will greatly increase electricity costs within Virginia as it reaches failure. Despite the concerns expressed in its 21-page…
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Spanberger’s Rewrite of Energy Bill Challenges Assembly, Dominion
by Steve Haner Governor Abigail Spanberger (D) has proposed that the General Assembly return to the misguided practice of dictating by law a utility profit margin, overturning a bipartisan reform approved just three years ago. It is no different than her effort to end the bipartisan reforms against political gerrymandering and again put politicians in…
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A Consequential Fight
by James C. Sherlock Michael Martz of the Richmond Times-Dispatch published an excellent report April 15 detailing the three-way fight among Governor Abigail Spanberger and various Democrats in the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates over the budget. The Governor proposed “hundreds of changes” to the competing budget bills proposed by each chamber. Long story…
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No, RTD, That Bill Does Not Cut Future Electric Rates
by Steve Haner The nonsense that the General Assembly is passing a bill to shift huge energy costs onto data centers and off all the other utility customers is going to be a bipartisan meme. A bill that merely punts that issue to the regulatory State Corporation Commission passed on a unanimous State Senate vote. …