\n<\/p>\n
Thomas, who won reelection last week, points to the local pushback against the proposed Prince William Digital Gateway, which would put more than 30 data centers on the edge of a national reserve located in the north of the state. A group of homeowners have challenged the project in court, and a judge voided zoning in August, which temporarily halted construction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe little guy finally won, which rarely happens in any industry, let alone where the Magnificent Ten play,\u201d he says, referring to the US\u2019s biggest tech companies. \u201cI think that rallied people politically in Virginia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas, like Hubbard, also says he sees a lot of his constituents concerned about how data centers will affect their electricity bill. \u201cPeople are just a lot more cost-conscious,\u201d he says. Energy bills, Thomas says \u201care something that was kept relatively static for a number of years.\u201d But in Virginia, electricity load from data centers are helping to drive up utility bills<\/a>, Thomas says.<\/p>\n Both Thomas and Hubbard are Democrats, but opposition to data centers, the Data Center Watch report stresses, has been thoroughly bipartisan. And some national Republican politicians, including Sen. Josh Hawley<\/a>, Rep. Thomas Massie, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, have begun to speak out against them.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople you have got to pay close attention to your local city, county, and state approvals of data centers and demand your water and energy bills be protected!!!\u201d Greene, who has criticized data center expansion for months, posted on X<\/a> on November 7.<\/p>\n Big tech companies have to date made few public statements about pushback to data center projects. While some, like Meta, provide public-facing information<\/a> on their data centers, others in the industry lean heavily on nondisclosure agreements<\/a> when building new data centers, providing little to no information to communities about these projects\u2014including which tech companies may be involved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n