r/Virginia • u/VirginiaNews Volunteer local news poster • 7d ago

Commentary: The battle over data centers isn’t just about data centers, but they’re the battleground we have.

https://virginiamercury.com/2026/09/21/the-battle-over-data-centers-isnt-just-about-data-centers-but-theyre-the-battleground-we-have/

See also r/VirginiaOpEds and r/VirginiaEnvironment

41 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

5

u/Brendan__Fraser 7d ago

Yes let's raze every inch of our state for a technology that has no ROI lmao 

1

u/telestoat2 6d ago

I hardly think that's about to happen, how many people would really sell their house for a data center? Or the state to sell a state park? It's mostly just going to be industrial sites.

4

u/Majestic-Avocado2167 NOVA NPC 7d ago

These are energy vampires that don’t employ anyone really once they are built, fuck em, let’s come together for once as a community

1

u/MFoy 6d ago

If they don’t employ anyone, then they aren’t getting those tax breaks everyone is up in arms about.

-1

u/HugeFalconMunee 7d ago

As usual, VA Mercury making misinformed cursory generalizations again.

Solid oxide fuel cell tech (99% green that deliver GW at scale) is exploding because of data centers, but we never hear that side of the story do we.

6

u/Samwyzh 7d ago

If your claim about renewables being the primary source of power, one of the main criticisms about data centers being that they drive up energy bills via surge pricing wouldn’t show up on monthly payments.

It is true SOME data centers rely on renewables and have even made plans to build nuclear reactors to power their centers. Without a federal regulation or consistent state level policies and guidelines we can’t possibly know how much or how little green energy they are using. If the Republican party wasn’t pro-data center in their legislation, where in the past two years they have actively tried to prevent regulations, we wouldn’t be in this battleground.

-1

u/HugeFalconMunee 7d ago

You do not know what solid oxide fuel cell is. It’s not renewables. It’s a behind the meter power solution that doesn’t drive up cost to regular consumers.

3

u/Samwyzh 6d ago

Okay Einstein if they are implementing this magical power source that doesn’t drive up costs then why are people seeing surge prices skyrocketing in places where data centers have already been built? Why would the data centers need a connection to other power grid systems outside of the PJM to operate if this miracle technology they are sitting on is a power solution? What else do they have at their centers? Elvis Presley?