Morrisey unveils 20-Year Responsible Data Center Development Plan
West Virginia officials, led by State Attorney General Morrisey, have unveiled a 20-year plan for responsible data center development across the state. This initiative aims to address concerns such as water and electricity consumption and the impact on local communities. The plan introduces new legislation to provide the state with greater oversight on future data center projects.
Attorney General Morrisey, alongside state legislators and the State Department of Commerce, has announced a comprehensive 20-year Responsible Data Center Development Plan for West Virginia. The plan aims to guide future data center development in a way that addresses environmental and community concerns, as the state currently lacks an active hyper-scale data center presence but anticipates future growth.
A key aspect of the plan is to account for issues like water and electricity consumption, and the potential impact on nearby homes and businesses. This new legislation is designed to give the state more oversight, rectifying a previous situation where more than 50 counties had no effective means to approve, reject, or place conditions on large-scale data center projects. Additionally, the plan includes a revenue-sharing model, allocating half of all revenue from certified data center projects towards reducing the state's personal income tax, with host counties receiving 30% of the revenue and other counties and local infrastructure upgrades receiving 10%. Morrisey emphasized West Virginia's historical energy leadership and its current ambition to be a technology leader in the new digital and economic frontier.