Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed Executive Order 22 on September 18, 2026, ordering state agencies to slow down data center approvals and stand up a task force on artificial intelligence risks. The order bans executive branch officials from signing nondisclosure agreements tied to data center projects, requires expedited noise regulations, and mandates a review of the backup generation systems that keep those facilities online during grid stress. Virginia hosts the largest concentration of data centers in the world, most of it clustered in Loudoun County, which makes the state's rulebook a de facto national baseline.
The AI task force created by the order carries a specific brief: evaluate how state government should respond to workforce displacement and data privacy harms, and determine how existing Virginia law can already be applied to AI-driven damages. That framing matters. Rather than waiting on the legislature to draft new statutes, Spanberger is directing agencies to identify enforcement hooks that already exist on the books.
Alongside the order, Spanberger unveiled a Data Center Accountability Framework laying out longer-term priorities for the state. Those priorities include eliminating 'by-right approval' — the mechanism that let developers build on designated land in Loudoun County for years without additional local sign-off — removing certain state subsidies, imposing environmental guardrails, and shielding residents from the electricity price increases that have accompanied hyperscale buildout.
Key facts
- 01Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed Executive Order 22 on September 18, 2026, targeting data center approvals and AI risks.
- 02The order bans executive branch officials from signing NDAs on data center projects and mandates expedited noise regulations.
- 03A new state AI task force will evaluate workforce displacement, data privacy, and how existing law applies to AI harms.
- 04The Data Center Accountability Framework moves to eliminate 'by-right approval' of the kind long used in Loudoun County.
- 05California's Gavin Newsom issued an AI safety executive order the same Friday; New York and Texas governors have acted previously.
The Virginia action is part of a same-day wave. California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued his own executive order on Friday convening experts on AI safety issues. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott have both previously taken executive action targeting the pace of data center development in their states. With Congress and President Donald Trump moving slowly or resisting sweeping federal AI or infrastructure rules, governors are filling the vacuum.
The NDA ban is the sharpest procedural change in the order. Data center siting negotiations between hyperscalers and state or county officials have routinely been shielded from public disclosure, leaving residents to learn about incoming multi-hundred-megawatt loads only after deals are signed. Prohibiting executive branch officials from signing those NDAs opens the negotiation record to public scrutiny and gives local governments more leverage to push back.
Environmental groups reacted to the order with a mix of praise and frustration. The Piedmont Environmental Council, which has pushed for a moratorium on new development to deal with existing pressures, argued the order does not go far enough.
“It largely addresses standards on new data centers and does not deal with what's already built and in the pipeline, along with the ongoing impacts piling up in communities now.”— Chris Miller, President, Piedmont Environmental Council
The framework's most consequential provision for developers may be the elimination of by-right approval. Under by-right zoning, if a parcel is designated for data center use, a developer can build without additional discretionary review by local officials. Removing that mechanism forces every project into a case-by-case approval process, which lengthens timelines, raises political risk, and gives community opposition a formal venue. For hyperscalers planning multi-year, multi-billion-dollar campuses, the loss of by-right certainty is a material change to the underwriting.
The generator review is quieter but just as substantive. Data centers rely on large diesel backup fleets to ride through grid disturbances, and those generators are increasingly under scrutiny for air quality and noise impacts on surrounding neighborhoods. A state-level operational review could tighten permitted runtime hours, restrict testing schedules, or force operators to accelerate transitions to lower-emission backup power.
What the order does not do is address the existing footprint. Loudoun County's built and permitted data center pipeline is enormous, and the Piedmont Environmental Council's critique cuts at the framework's core limitation: standards on new projects do nothing for communities already dealing with substation buildouts, transmission expansions, and the electricity price signals that come with them. Spanberger's team has effectively drawn a line forward, not backward.
The Virginia move reshapes the pricing model for hyperscale expansion in the largest data center market on earth. NDAs going away, by-right approval going away, and a formal state AI harms task force all raise the cost of doing business in the state most AI infrastructure planners default to. Expect siting activity to migrate faster toward Texas, Ohio, Georgia, and overseas markets where approval certainty remains higher — and expect other governors to copy the NDA ban within the next quarter, because it is the cheapest and most politically legible piece of the package.
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