Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, who promised during her campaign to prioritize affordable energy if elected, doubled down on her concerns about the “energy crisis” that Virginia could face without new policies to hold the biggest energy users accountable.
“There are some bad energy policies in some of our neighboring states that have driven up prices, particularly in southwest Virginia,” Spanberger said Sunday on *Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan*. “We have to be clear-eyed about the fact that we will have an energy crisis headed into the future.”
Virginia is home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers—facilities designed to house the technical infrastructure that powers artificial intelligence (AI). As the AI boom continues to grow, so too does the demand for these data centers. While they bring financial benefits to their local areas, including in Virginia where Gov. Glenn Youngkin reported $1 billion in tax revenue in 2024, they also contribute to rising energy costs for consumers.
For example, power bills in Virginia have increased by nearly 7% over the last year.
To help offset the public burden of these rising costs, Spanberger has proposed a multi-pronged policy approach that involves ramping up energy production within Virginia and ensuring that data centers pay “their fair share” for the energy they consume.
“It will be important that large-scale energy users, particularly data centers, pay their fair share for the energy that they are using,” Spanberger emphasized, echoing remarks from her victory speech last week. “And we have to increase our energy production here at home, so that we can meet the demand—not only from larger-scale users but also from our communities.”
One of the main pillars of Spanberger’s energy affordability plan is to ensure that data centers do not drive up energy costs for everyone else in Virginia. The plan stipulates that these facilities should contribute to the cost of electricity generation and the transmission infrastructure required to power them.
Other key elements of her proposal include:
– Increasing local energy generation
– Improving energy storage efficiency
– Addressing regulatory issues between states
– Making existing energy subsidy programs more accessible to low-income residents
“It’s a real challenge that we have to get ahead of,” Spanberger said Sunday. “It’s a challenge that is pervasive in our communities and particularly acute in southwest Virginia.”
Spanberger, a Democrat who previously represented northern and central Virginia in Congress, won this year’s gubernatorial election against Republican incumbent Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears by more than 14 points. She will become Virginia’s first woman governor when she assumes office in January.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abigail-spanberger-virginia-energy-crisis-data-centers-face-the-nation/
