Gov. Spanberger on Making Data Centers Pay Their Fair Share | Energy on the Ballot

Northern Virginia is the biggest data center market in the world, and pushback is growing.

So are power bills. A typical Dominion bill is now about $180 a month, $20 more than a year ago.

Rising bills put energy on the ballot in Virginia’s 2025 governor’s race. Abigail Spanberger won it by 15 points, and now she wants data centers to pay for the grid built to serve them.

Recorded live at the Virginia Clean Energy Summit in Richmond for Energy on the Ballot, our series on energy and the midterms.

In this episode:

• The breakfast in Norton, Virginia, where nearly everyone in the room wanted to talk about their power bill
• Why Virginia’s new energy plan puts a price on asthma and rising seas
• A proposal to make new data centers in Virginia face a local vote
• How everyone’s bill changes when data centers choose batteries over gas generators
• Virginia’s first-of-its-kind tax on data center electricity, and the case for the industry’s sales tax break
• What candidates should run on this November, and why state and federal races need different answers