As loyal Republicans, Reece Payton said that he and his family of cattle ranchers in Hogansville, Ga., had one thing on their minds when they cast their ballots in November for the state’s utility board — “to make a statement.” They were already irked by their escalating electric bills, not to mention an extra $50 a month levied by their local utility to cover a new nuclear power plant more than 200 miles away. But after they heard a data center might be built next to their L

After the State Corporation Commission last night announced that it was approving a request by Dominion Energy to create a new rate class for large energy users and partially granted a request to increase rates, some community leaders say this is a good first step at regulating the data center industry, while other are raising concerns. The SCC’s final order in the utility company’s biennial review and said the new GS-5 class will be made up of customers requesting 25 megawat

Dominion Energy can go ahead with a controversial gas-fired power plant on the site of its Chesterfield power station, the State Corporation Commission says. The $1.47 billion plant would generate 944 megawatts of electricity when up and running in 2027. Dominion said it needs the facility because of Virginia's soaring electricity demand. Opponents said it flouts state policy, as expressed in the Virginia Clean Economy Act's mandatethat by 2045 Dominion's generating plants em

As home to an impressive — and alarming — one-third of the world’s data centers , Virginia urgently needs proper oversight and regulation to prevent the economic benefits from being short-circuited by rising energy demand and costs, noise and other unwanted outcomes. In January, the incoming governor and House of Delegates will need to join the state Senate in resuming work left unfinished earlier this year. At least 33 bills were introduced in this year’s legislative session

with wealth to be had, four factions form a juggernaut of power: data centers, utilities, developers, politicians . Anyone wondering why data centers are so hard to stop can find the answer in history. In his farewell address on Jan. 17, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the nation about the growing “military-industrial complex, ” a powerful alliance of defense contractors, the Pentagon and politicians who he feared would dominate the weapons industry to benefit the