Prince William Supervisor Boddye Seeks Authority to Pause High-Demand Projects as Spotsylvania Urges Statewide Moratorium
Prince William County Supervisor Kenny Boddye called for Virginia state leaders to grant local governments explicit authority to defer decisions on high-demand industrial projects, like data centers, to study their impacts on water, power, and air quality. This follows Spotsylvania County supervisors urging a statewide data center moratorium. Boddye also has a history of advocating for stricter regulations on data center development in Prince William County.
Prince William County Occoquan District Supervisor Kenny Boddye has urged Virginia state leaders to grant local governments explicit authority to defer decisions on high-resource-demand industrial projects, including data centers. This would allow officials to conduct thorough studies on the projects' water, power, and air-quality impacts. Boddye plans to add this request to Prince William County's legislative agenda.
This call for deferred decisions comes as Spotsylvania County supervisors recently voted 4-2 to implore Gov. Abigail Spanberger to enact a statewide data center moratorium. The moratorium, if adopted, would allow the Commonwealth to study the future implications of the rapidly expanding data center industry.
Supervisor Boddye's position on data center development is multifaceted; he has previously received campaign contributions from data center developers and currently works for a development firm marketing a data center site in West Virginia. However, he has also actively pushed to end by-right data center development in Prince William, supported higher taxes on major electricity users, and voted against large data center proposals, framing his current legislative push as a necessary step to balance economic growth with environmental and infrastructure protections.