WASHINGTON — Critics of the data centers built across Virginia for the artificial intelligence boom said they are causing utility bills to explode and have negative effects on the environment, particularly in rural communities.
A new bill in Congress would examine the effects. The “Unleashing Low-Cost Rural AI Act” would study how AI data centers encouraged by the Trump administration will affect energy costs for rural Americans. Virginia is home to more data centers than any other state, with 150 dotting the Commonwealth.
Christopher Miller, president of the Piedmont Environmental Council, said rural areas cannot help but feel the effects as the demand for more data centers grows.
“The impact on land resources, everything from farmland to important historic sites with scenic qualities, are affected by the footprint of the data centers,” Miller pointed out. “Some of these are being built in places where development is planned, but others are being built out in rural areas. That’s just a lot of land just for the footprint of the data centers.”
According to a report from Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, data centers are projected to triple electric demand in the Commonwealth by 2050.
Miller noted local and state governments will need to play a part in regulating data centers but he described actions taken by the Trump administration to deregulate are concerning.
“I think the federal role is to have an understanding of the overall cost,” Miller contended. “I think what’s terrifying is the other end of the spectrum, which is advocating for no regulation, or for the suspension of existing rules and regulations in order to accelerate both the data centers and the energy infrastructure.”
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in July to deregulate the permitting process to spur the construction of AI data centers. The executive order was described as a way to bring the U.S. into “a new age of manufacturing and technological dominance.”
