House members spent over an hour Monday discussing data centers on the first of two days of House of Delegates-only interim meetings at the State Capitol.
Much as it was during the 2026 regular session, local autonomy was a major point of conflict during the data center debate on Monday.
The consensus of the body was that the Legislature will continue to regulate data centers from the state level, removing authority from local governments and county commissions.
Del. Mike Pushkin (D- Kanawha, 54) expressed his concern that the new state law governing data centers removes any reason for the developers to be transparent.
“That’s the part that really concerns a lot of us that removal of local control. Wouldn’t that remove the incentive for them to reach out to local communities? As far as I know, there haven’t been a lot of town halls from these companies,” Pushkin said.
Del. Jordan Maynor (R-Raleigh, 41) told lawmakers that he heard the exact opposite from developers during a recent trip to an event called Data Center World held in Washington, D.C.
“We heard several times the reiteration of that, ‘we have to get into these communities, we have to educate them. we have to be open has humanly possible, so the communities are welcoming and accepting of us,’” Maynor said.
A panel of delegates and representatives from government agencies later explained how the trajectory of the A.I. industry makes the explosion of data centers inevitable.
Unlike some other states embracing data projects, like Texas, tax revenue from West Virginia data centers will be collected by the state rather than the county where the project is located.
Discussions on local autonomy and the environmental impact of data centers will continue on day two of the interim session Tuesday.
