Data centers, once largely out of sight, out of mind, have moved to the center of a growing national debate. In Ashburn, Virginia, data centers sit just steps from parks, trails, and homes. The area, known as Data Center Alley, handles roughly 70 percent of the world's internet traffic, and with the explosive growth of artificial intelligence, demand is skyrocketing. "The number of data centers already under construction, never mind forecasts, is greater than all the data cen

One spring day about 66 million years ago, some dinosaurs probably looked up at the sky and, if their walnut-sized brains could process what their eyes saw, they might have wondered why there was a bright light streaking across the sky. They sure didn’t understand the consequences, though. Today, the mammalian species that took dinosaurs’ place as the apex predator on the planet — us — is figuratively in the same place they were, except we’re looking at our computer screens a

John Steinbach was shocked to receive a $281 electricity bill in January 2026—a huge spike from the roughly $100 he’d paid the previous month. “It’s just so far beyond any bill that I’ve ever had,” he says. Steinbach, who has lived in his Manassas, Va., home for nearly 40 years, worries his rates will keep climbing as the outsized electricity demand from AI data centers grows. “They’re building them like it’s ‘Field of Dreams’—build it and the electricity will come—but we don

A coalition that includes Dominion Energy and the parent company of Appalachian Power is planning an “extra-high-voltage” transmission line spanning 115 miles from the Lynchburg area to Culpeper. The final route has yet to be determined, but a map of possibilities shows that the 765-kilovolt overhead line could cross nine counties: Appomattox, Buckingham, Campbell, Culpeper, Fluvanna, Goochland, Louisa, Orange and Spotsylvania. Community meetings are planned to get resident

STERLING, Virginia — Lindsay Shaw was happy when she found out a data center was going up 100 meters from her front door. Unlike most of her neighbors, she preferred a supercomputing hub to a shopping mall, which might bring a crush of car traffic. She was even more pleased when she learned the data center would generate its own power — rather than connecting to the grid and driving up her electric bills. But then the data center turned on, along with the eight natural gas tu