WV Legislative Photography DATA CENTER DEBATE – House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle, seen here during an earlier legislative interim meeting, led a press conference Monday afternoon with fellow Democratic House members again calling for changed to House Bill 2014, the data center/microgrid district law.

CHARLESTON – Monday’s series of legislative interim meetings began with Republican lawmakers questioning the benefits of two proposed electric transmission line projects and ended with Democratic lawmakers calling for changes to West Virginia’s data center district law.

Members of the House of Delegates and state Senate were at Canaan Valley Resort State Park in Tucker County Sunday through Tuesday for June interim meetings.

The Joint Standing Committee on the Judiciary met Monday morning for a regulatory overview related to the adoption earlier this year of House Concurrent Resolution 22, requesting a study of policies accelerating new electric generation infrastructure for grid reliability, economic growth, and to meet the state’s energy production goals.

But questioning by lawmakers quickly turned to two proposed electric transmission line projects that will go through parts of West Virginia.

NextEra Energy’s MidAtlantic Resiliency Link (MARL) is a 500-kilovolt high voltage transmission line that would begin in Greene County, Pa., and go through parts of Monongalia, Preston, Mineral and Hampshire counties before ending in Frederick County, Va. A final route for the 107.5-mile project has not yet been approved.

Dominion Energy, FirstEnergy Transmission and Transource (partially owned by American Electric Power) created the Valley Link Transmission Company, with a proposed 765 kilovolt extra-high-voltage transmission line. The 375-mile project would traverse parts of West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland, though specific route has not been approved yet.

Both projects would benefit PJM Interconnection – the wholesale energy transmission company serving West Virginia, 12 other states and Washington, D.C. PJM coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity, dispatching the power it needs for the regional grid on a minute-by-minute basis using the least expensive fuel sources first.

Abby Reale, director of government affairs in West Virginia for Akron-based FirstEnergy, said both projects were needed by PJM to address growing electricity demand and ease congestion on the regional grid being caused, in part, by the growth of data centers. According to DataCenterMap.com, Virginia is home to 629 data centers, often called the data center capital of the world.

“These projects, because they’re regional transmission projects, that means there’s some type of violation or congestion within a certain area,” Reale said. “We have to have those lines in order to provide power even here in the State of West Virginia. So, it’s not just power to other states within PJM, which does benefit our rate ayers because we’re selling into that market to those ratepayers in Virginia or wherever. That is beneficial for us.”

Utility representatives emphasized that these projects are essential for regional grid reliability, allowing West Virginia to export its power. However, some legislators expressed concerns, accusing these projects of being ratepayer subsidies for other states’ energy policies.

“We in West Virginia are going to be paying to supply power to Virginia,” said Del. Bill Ridenour, R-Jefferson. “What I’m trying to get to is, and this is apparent to most of us who have actually been looking at this, is that the demand is coming from data centers in Virginia … And we, as part of PJM, are being required to pay for that. And that does not make sense to me. I don’t understand why West Virginia should be paying for a Virginia decision relative to their data centers.”

Virginia is currently seeking input on an energy plan, with the goal of achieving a net-zero carbon energy economy by 2045. Del. Rick Hillenbrand, R-Hampshire, also pointed to pushback in Virginia on additional data centers, including a debate over whether Virginia should continue offering tax breaks for future data center projects.

“When you talk to the people over in Virginia in those areas, there’s significant pushback from Virginia for additional buildouts in that regard,” Hillenbrand said. “So, I’m wondering, are we building a train system where there’s no customers?”

“Keep in mind that the grid is interconnected,” Reale said. “It’s a reliability project, not just for one location. It’s for all PJM. That’s why it’s called a grid. It’s interconnected at many, many points. It’s not just a line that starts in one location and stops in the other. It affects the reliability all along the line, particularly from each substation it stops, which there’ll be two.”

Later Monday afternoon, members of the House Democratic caucus held a press conference with concerned Tucker County residents about data centers and the need for changes to House Bill 2014, the Power Generation and Consumption Act, aimed at attracting data centers to West Virginia along with microgrids to power the data centers using both fossil fuels and renewable energy generation.

The new law, passed by the Legislature in 2025, streamlines development of data center and microgrid projects, offers regulatory exemptions within designated microgrid districts, establishes a special valuation for property taxes and a new tax distribution framework for high-impact data centers and creates a fund for electric grid stabilization.

House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, and House Deputy Minority Leader Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, said HB 2014 needs amended to allow city and county governments to be able to regulate data centers. HB 2014 prohibits counties and municipalities from enacting or enforcing ordinances, regulations or rules that would prohibit or hinder these data center/microgrid districts.

“We are not going to allow a hostile takeover in our communities. It’s not going to happen on our watch,” Hornbuckle said. “We all know what House Bill 2014 did, and it’s setting a very dangerous precedent in the State of West Virginia, which we all know we love our property rights.”

“The Republican supermajority in Charleston … They don’t want county commissions, or city councils, anywhere in West Virginia to be able to enforce their ordinances. And that’s just plain wrong,” Hansen said. “That’s something that the House Democrats are fighting against.”

Democratic lawmakers, both in last year and during the 2026 legislative session, made attempts to amend HB 2014 and the bill approving legislative rules for HB 2014 to include more local control of data center projects; and provide more transparency about environmental effects, such as noise, emissions, and water usage.

“At the very least, what we should have in West Virginia is a system where the data center developers are transparent and communicate with people in the community about where they’re going to get their water from, what they’re going to do with it, and how they’re going to protect existing and future users of the water … We have a right to know.”

Certified data center projects will still pay business and occupation tax, municipal sales and service tax, ad valorem real and personal property tax, municipal service fees and utility rates to the municipality. However, instead of having data center property values assessed by the county, HB 2014 requires owners to file tax returns with the Board of Public Works annually, with tangible personal property tax collections distributed via a formula.

According to a formula, 50% of property tax collections from these projects would go to a personal income tax reduction fund, 30% would go to the county or counties where the data centers are, 10% would go to all 55 counties on a per capita basis, 5% would go to the state Economic Enhancement Grant Fund, and 5% would go to a new Electric Grid Stabilization and Security Fund.

House Minority Leader Pro Tempore Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, questioned the tax distribution formula and the valuation for how data center property would be assessed.

“Since the bill passed, now (counties are) only going to get 30%, because 50% of that revenue is going straight to Charleston, straight to the state so they can make higher tax cuts for millionaires and where the rich will disproportionately get better … than we all are in this room here,” Young said. “In House Bill 2014, (data center property values) go down to salvage value. That’s 5%. Ninety-five percent of the value of the money that would have gone straight to the counties here is now down to 5%.”

Tucker County is home to a proposed data center project – Ridgeline – being built by Fundamental Data which will be powered by small-scale natural gas-fired power generation. The project has vocal opposition in the local community, though the project has not yet been approved as a data center district under HB 2014. House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, is representing Fundamental Date as an attorney for the Bowles Rice law firm while its air quality permit approval is being appealed.