Virginia Signs Bills Shifting Data Center Costs as Opposition to AI Infrastructure Grows

Virginia has more data centers than any jurisdiction on Earth, and Governor Abigail Spanberger just signed bills that will reshape how the state finances them, but neither the left nor the right is saying out loud what this legislation actually reveals about who pays for AI infrastructure and who profits from it.

Here's what happened: On Friday, Spanberger signed two bills, both originating from Democratic leadership. The first directs state regulators to assign electricity costs directly to data centers rather than spreading those costs across all ratepayers. The second allows Dominion Energy to spend $900,000 per mile burying local distribution lines, the type of grid hardening and modernization that data centers require. The specific number matters: Dominion is not requesting authority to spend that amount in aggregate. It is setting the per-mile cost that will apply to every data center project going forward. The bills passed with bipartisan support.

Mother Jones frames this as Silicon Valley conquest of sacred ground. The article names Sam Altman, the OpenAI CEO, as a specific driver of data center expansion and places that expansion geographically near Manassas National Battlefield Park, invoking the Civil War history of the location. The language used is territorial: companies are "pushing to build," implying aggression. The omission is deliberate: Mother Jones does not report that Spanberger is a Democrat, that Democratic legislative leadership sponsored the bills, or that Democrats control Virginia's legislature. Blaming this on Silicon Valley billionaires erases the role of the state's own elected officials in writing this legislation.

The Washington Examiner calls opponents "socialist Democrats and foreign billionaires" and frames the Gallup finding of 70% opposition as proof the anti-data center movement has lost credibility through "doomism." The specific language is important: "doomers must be defeated" constructs opposition as ideology rather than policy disagreement. The omission here is equally deliberate: the Examiner does not report that Spanberger, the Democrat governor who signed these bills, is the same Spanberger who has represented Virginia in Congress and whose party controls the state legislature. If opposition is coming from "socialists," the Examiner does not explain why the Democratic state government is driving data center expansion through legislation.

Neither side names the prior agreement that explains why this is happening now: In 2023, Dominion Energy negotiated with Virginia's State Corporation Commission for authority to charge all ratepayers for grid upgrades required by data centers, effectively socializing the infrastructure costs while data center operators capture the profits. That 2023 agreement created the incentive structure the new bills codify. Neither side names the specific history: Virginia became the data center capital of the world because the state government spent decades courting the industry with tax incentives and regulatory favor, starting in the 1990s and accelerating after 2010. This is not new development. It is entrenched policy made by both parties.

The real headline is this: Virginia's state government, controlled by Democrats, has written legislation that shifts data center electricity costs to the operators themselves while guaranteeing Dominion Energy a contractor relationship to build the infrastructure those operators need. The policy redistributes cost from all ratepayers to the companies using the most power, and guarantees a utility company profit on the infrastructure work. Seventy percent of Americans oppose data centers near their homes. Virginia's elected officials are ignoring that opposition because the state's economy and Dominion's balance sheet depend on data center expansion. That is not left versus right. That is incumbency protecting entrenched interests, left and right united.