Virginia governor Spanberger bans datacenter NDAs, curbs permits
On Friday, September 18, 2026, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger issued an executive order establishing a datacenter accountability framework for the state, which hosts more datacenter capacity than anywhere else in the world. The order bans nondisclosure agreements on datacenter projects, requires local approval for any datacenter exceeding 25 megawatts, removes future large datacenters from the state's expedited permitting process, and calls on officials to set criteria separating responsible developments from those that harm residents or the environment.
Spanberger said in a statement: "In the years before I took office, datacenters came to Virginia and the Commonwealth did not have a clear or coordinated plan to address their impacts on Virginians ... That changes today." She argued existing policy lacked the precision needed to hold developers accountable and that the order is necessary to protect residents. On the environmental side, the framework limits water-intensive cooling towers in areas facing water scarcity and pushes operators to either retrofit existing backup generators to cut emissions or switch to battery storage, fuel cells, or other clean energy sources.
The order comes just days after Loudoun County's Board of Supervisors backed a plan to pause final action on certain new datacenter and substation applications for up to 12 months; Loudoun County has one of the highest concentrations of datacenters in Virginia. Opposition to datacenter buildouts is rising across the US over air quality, noise, water use, and electric bills. In Tennessee, Elon Musk's Colossus 2 datacenter draws part of its power from 27 gas turbines located across the state line in Mississippi, now the subject of an NAACP lawsuit alleging Clean Air Act violations; the article cites this as an example of the friction datacenters generate elsewhere, not as something Spanberger's order addresses.
Virginia's move follows similar action in two other states. In July, New York became the first state to temporarily halt datacenter buildouts exceeding 50 megawatts, under an executive order from Governor Kathy Hochul. A month later, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro issued an executive order blocking datacenter permit applications that lack commitments to the power grid. Both, like Virginia's rules, aim to keep residents from footing the bill for grid upgrades built on speculative demand.
Key facts
- Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed an executive order on September 18, 2026 banning NDAs on datacenter projects and creating a datacenter accountability framework.
- Datacenters exceeding 25 megawatts now require local approval and lose access to the state's expedited permitting process.
- The order limits water-intensive cooling towers in water-scarce areas and pushes operators toward battery storage, fuel cells, or cleaner backup generators.
- Virginia follows New York (Gov. Hochul's July halt on buildouts over 50 megawatts) and Pennsylvania (Gov. Shapiro's grid-commitment permit block, a month later).
- Days earlier, Loudoun County, Virginia's most datacenter-dense county, backed pausing new datacenter and substation approvals for up to 12 months.
Why it matters
Virginia hosts more datacenter capacity than any other place in the world, and its governor is now the third US state executive this year to move against unchecked buildouts, after New York and Pennsylvania. Banning NDAs is the notable piece: it removes one of the main tools developers have used to keep deal terms, water draw, and power use out of public view. Paired with a harder permitting threshold and mandated environmental criteria, the order signals a state trying to slow projects down, not just add paperwork.
Who it affects
Datacenter developers and operators active in Virginia, above all in Loudoun County, now face local review for any project over 25 megawatts and lose the fast track that let large builds skip it. Residents near existing and planned sites gain visibility into deals that previously could be sealed behind NDAs, plus new limits meant to protect local water supplies and air quality. The order does not name a specific operator; the article does not tie it to Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, or any other named company.
How to use it
For anyone planning or evaluating a Virginia datacenter project, the practical change is procedural: budget for local approval above 25 megawatts rather than the state's expedited track, design cooling and backup power to avoid water-intensive towers and high-emission generators in favor of battery storage, fuel cells, or cleaner sources, and expect site agreements to be public going forward rather than covered by an NDA. The article does not say whether the NDA ban reaches agreements already signed, only that new ones are barred.
How solid is it
The Register frames the story under its usual dry, editorializing headline, but the reporting itself is straight: a named governor, a direct quote from her statement, a described executive order with specific provisions, and corroborating detail, the Loudoun County pause, the New York and Pennsylvania precedents, and the unrelated NAACP suit over Colossus 2's turbines in Mississippi. No dollar figures, vote counts, or named opposition appear in the piece, and the action is described only as a governor's executive order, not legislation passed by Virginia's General Assembly.
Risks and caveats
The article gives no effective or enforcement date for the order beyond the Friday signing, no detail on how the criteria for 'responsible development' will be set, and no reaction from any datacenter operator or industry group. It does not say whether the NDA ban applies retroactively to agreements already in place. The Colossus 2 gas-turbine lawsuit is a Tennessee/Mississippi matter unrelated to Virginia, included only as context for the broader backlash against datacenter buildouts.
“In the years before I took office, datacenters came to Virginia and the Commonwealth did not have a clear or coordinated plan to address their impacts on Virginians ... That changes today.”
— Abigail Spanberger, Governor of Virginia