Del. Irene Shin wants to freeze data center zoning in Fairfax County and across Virginia until the power grid catches up.

Shin, a Herndon-area Democrat, has proposed a bill that would block localities from approving new data center zoning and permitting requests until all pending requests for power interconnection are fulfilled, or until July 2028, whichever comes first. The bill, continued from the 2026 session, is one of at least four moratorium proposals headed to the General Assembly when it convenes Jan. 13, 2027, the Virginia Mercury reported.

The broadest proposal is Senate Bill 843, filed by Sen. Russet Perry, D-Loudoun, and Sen. Danica Roem, D-Prince William. It would bar localities, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the State Corporation Commission from issuing any data center building permits statewide from July 2027 through July 2030. The bill would also block new distribution lines, on-site power and related infrastructure that solely serve data centers during that window.

Roem is filing a second bill that would halt new approvals until Dominion Energy works through its interconnection queue. Dominion has about 25,000 megawatts of power assigned to projects with energized dates and another 75,000 megawatts going to projects still waiting, according to the Virginia Mercury. The utility estimates a seven-year wait for customers in the queue to receive power.

"Until the industry and Dominion Energy deal with the hundreds of data centers already awaiting power, they shouldn't be siting more data centers …" Roem said, according to the Virginia Mercury.

Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Chesterfield, plans to file his own moratorium bill, making the push bipartisan. Sturtevant said on Oct. 15 that constituents are telling him their electric bills have climbed sharply year over year. He blamed data center power costs being passed to Virginia ratepayers.

Sturtevant also signaled he wants to reopen debate over the industry's sales and use tax exemption, which lawmakers preserved during a months-long budget delay earlier this year. A new tax on data centers is expected to generate $1.2 billion over the biennium.

Why it matters in Reston

Data center proposals have been creeping closer to Reston neighborhoods. At its Sept. 23 meeting, the Fairfax County Planning Commission deferred a vote on the Lake Fairfax Business Center redevelopment, where an existing data center sits about 100 feet from proposed homes, according to FFXnow. That distance is half the 200-foot buffer the Board of Supervisors adopted in 2024 for new data center construction.

Planning Commission Chair Phillip Niedzielski-Eichner stressed that noise monitoring must account for constant, low-frequency noise from the facility.

When Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed her Data Center Accountability Framework on Sept. 18, Shin told FFXnow the plan "holds data centers accountable for paying their fair share of the transmission and generation costs they're driving up, rather than passing those costs off to residential ratepayers." Her moratorium bill goes further than Spanberger's framework, which focuses on transparency, cost-shifting and environmental review but does not pause approvals.

Spanberger denied a request from Perry and Sen. Richard Stuart, R-King George, for a special session to address data center water concerns before the regular session.

Opposition

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is pushing back. Don Slaiman, communications director for IBEW Local 26, told the Virginia Mercury he does not think a moratorium will pass because it would eliminate jobs and tax revenue.

The Data Center Coalition, a national industry group, said data centers have invested $80.56 billion in Virginia and generated $5.34 billion in state and local taxes.

All moratorium bills must pass both chambers and be signed by the governor. The General Assembly session begins Jan. 13.