Democratic Loudoun County Senator Russet Perry has introduced Senate Bill 843, which would halt state agencies from approving data center planning applications for three years starting July 1, 2027. Perry cited rising electric bills, threats to groundwater, and insufficient grid infrastructure as reasons for the pause, saying the moratorium would give lawmakers time to establish regulatory guardrails. Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger has not backed the moratorium but introduced a Data Center Accountability Framework last month that bans non-disclosure agreements for new projects and calls for noise regulations. Loudoun County itself has adopted a 12-month moratorium, and neighboring Prince William County is tightening planning controls.
Virginia is the data center industry's largest market, and a statewide three-year moratorium would represent one of the most consequential regulatory actions against data center development in the country. The bill adds to a growing pattern of statewide moratoriums already enacted in New York, Texas, and Oregon, signaling that regulatory pressure is intensifying in the markets that matter most to the industry.
A sitting Virginia state senator proposing a statewide moratorium on data centers is a major policy development in the nation's largest data center market. This is distinct from the Ohio moratorium push already published and represents a significant new legislative action in a critical jurisdiction.