Southwest Virginia’s 20th Century Politicians in a 21st Century Data Race

[urtopix]

“Southwest Virginia’s 20th Century Politicians in a 21st Century Data Race: Still Clinging to Coal, Crumbs, and Crippling Monopolies”

Fifteen years ago, Wise County didn’t wait for bureaucratic hand-holding—it secured a top-tier data center by hustling on its own, hiring a lobbyist, marketing its strengths, and steering clear of outdated economic development agencies stuck in a rotary phone era. Fast forward to today, and our elected leaders are still giving rah-rah speeches about “opportunities” while leaning on 20th-century thinking in a world run by fiber optics and AI algorithms.

At a recent legislative breakfast, lawmakers like Del. Terry Kilgore and Del. Israel O’Quinn waxed hopeful about attracting data centers to Southwest Virginia, with Kilgore pointing out our region’s abundant land. But here’s the inconvenient truth: land alone doesn’t bring tech jobs—it takes broadband, energy reliability, and, yes, world-class healthcare. And in that department, Southwest Virginia ranks embarrassingly low, thanks to the unholy monopoly that is Ballad Health.

The Ballad Health Mess:
If data center operators are Googling “local healthcare options,” they’re getting horror stories. Ballad Health—Southwest Virginia’s monopoly healthcare provider—ranks near the bottom of national healthcare surveys. Instead of investing in better outcomes, Ballad has focused on consolidating hospitals, cutting services, and paying below-market wages that drive skilled healthcare workers out of the region. When your local nurses are overworked and underpaid, it’s not exactly a glowing endorsement to attract outside talent—or to retain the talent we already have.

Why aren’t our elected leaders making healthcare reform a top priority? Instead of defending outdated Certificate of Need laws—which protect Ballad’s monopoly by blocking competition from entering the market—they should be working to dismantle this antiquated system. These regulations might as well be stamped “Property of the Politburo” because they function like communist-era bureaucracy, preventing other healthcare systems from offering better options and good-paying jobs.

Broadband or Bust:
While the rest of Virginia zips along the information superhighway, too much of Southwest Virginia is stuck in the digital equivalent of a dirt road. If tech companies are looking for places to set up their data centers, they need more than land—they need 21st-century internet connectivity. Without it, we’re pitching data centers with a shrug and a prayer: “Bring your own broadband!” The fact that broadband is still a “goal” and not a reality in some communities should be embarrassing.

Outdated Energy Talk:
O’Quinn rightly pointed out that data centers need reliable power, but the conversation about renewables versus fossil fuels feels like a rerun from 2005. While Southside, Shenandoah Valley, and the Eastern Shore compete with forward-thinking proposals, Southwest Virginia is stuck in endless debates over the Clean Economy Act like it’s the only thing standing between us and prosperity. It’s not. The real barrier is a lack of vision.

A Modern Region Needs Modern Priorities:
Instead of clinging to nostalgia for coal and outdated economic strategies, Southwest Virginia needs leaders who prioritize:

1. Breaking Ballad’s stranglehold on healthcare to bring in competition and create high-paying healthcare jobs that attract families and businesses alike.
2. Expanding broadband access to connect every household and business to the global economy.
3. Smart energy investments that don’t just rely on land but actually offer the power infrastructure data centers need.

Wise County proved 15 years ago that we could compete and win in the high-stakes data center game. But today, unless we upgrade our priorities and ditch the 20th-century playbook, we’ll still be sitting on “potential” while the rest of the state cashes in on the future. And no tech executive—or industrial professional—wants to set up shop in a region where the broadband is slow, the hospitals are ranked low, and the brightest and most educated have to leave the region to find good paying jobs due to lack of infrastructure.

If we don’t adapt, Southwest Virginia won’t just be behind—it’ll be a cautionary tale. And as O’Quinn warned, we’ll not only be sitting in the dark—we’ll be stuck in it.

—Mountain Bee Satire

[urtopix]

Appetite for power (Daily Press - Newspaper)

Data centers benefit Virginia, but supporting them requires better planning

Data centers are shown in Ashburn in 2023. Data centers house the computer servers and hardware required to support modern internet use, including artificial intelligence. Northern Virginia is home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers. Tech companies like to place the centers here, partly because the region’s proximity to the nation’s traditional internet backbone allows the servers in those data centers to save nanoseconds crucial to support financial transactions, gaming technology and other time-sensitive applications. Ted Shaffrey/ap
Virginians have reaped multiple benefits from the surge in data center construction across the commonwealth, but they shouldn’t foot the bill for supplying electricity to a highly profitable industry. In its session starting Wednesday, the General Assembly needs to ensure residential power customers are adequately protected from that risk.

Data centers provide a major boost to Virginia’s economy, contributing $9.1 billion in gross domestic product, 74,000 jobs (although mostly in short-term construction) and $5.5 billion in labor income each year. In Northern Virginia, the largest data market center in the world, Loudoun County generates almost one-third of its annual tax revenue from the industry. Other counties see significant revenue gains.

But, as a new legislative study shows, the industry could double the state’s energy demands in 10 years and triple demands by 2040 — and possibly stick residential power customers with a substantial part of the bill for data center needs.

A report from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission shows that continued growth in data centers would force power companies such as Dominion Energy to build new infrastructure and transmission lines at a rate that will be very difficult to achieve.

A new natural gas plant would have to be added every two years for 15 years, new solar facilities would have to be added at twice the annual rate they were this year, and wind generation needs would exceed the potential capabilities of all offshore wind sites approved so far, according to JLARC.

For new infrastructure, public utilities must take on new fixed costs that are passed on to all customers, and utilities also may need to import power to meet peak demand, sometimes at higher rates than their own. As a result, a typical Dominion cost could see increases of $14 to $37 monthly by 2040, according to JLARC.

Additional financial risk looms. If a data center closes or relocates to another state, the infrastructure costs would remain. Similarly, data centers and other large-load customers can choose to obtain power from third-party providers; such a switch would again leave utilities and their customers on the hook.

JLARC recommends that state lawmakers consider multiple steps to chart a wiser course for development of data centers, including requiring Dominion Energy to develop a plan to address the risk of infrastructure costs being stranded with existing customers.

Given the capital investment, job growth and tax revenue generated by the industry, it seems unlikely the General Assembly will make any changes that risk driving data center growth to other states. But lawmakers should seek ways to lessen the negative effects of that growth.
For starters, the state needs to reconsider the merits of sales and use tax exemptions — about $928.6 million in 2023 — granted to tech companies, including Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft, for data centers.

While those exemptions make Virginia competitive with other primary markets for data centers such as the Portland, Oregon suburbs, it’s time to review the size of those tax breaks. The Virginia data centers are primarily located near major urban centers in Northern Virginia and along the I-95 corridors. Perhaps major tech companies don’t need quite so much cajoling, at taxpayer expense, to continue building here.

Other new measures may be warranted, such as establishing a separate electricity rate for data centers, reducing emissions from backup diesel generators, protecting residential areas from noise, and ensuring water demands from the centers don’t burden local resources.
The sources of new electricity generation also must be weighed carefully. Natural gas burns cleaner than coal or oil, but it still emits harmful pollutants and contributes to climate change. Nuclear energy, including from new small modular reactors, carries risks. Solar and wind must be the priority options for future growth.

Given the nation’s increasing reliance on digital services, data centers are a necessity. But it is certainly possible to make sure they’re better planned and properly resourced, with minimal impact on Virginians.