Jefferson County Development Authority Meets With Data Center Experts
On Thursday, February 5, 2026 the Jefferson County Development Authority Board of Directors met with state and industry leaders with the express goal of learning about data centers and what they could do for Jefferson County. It was clearly stated at the beginning of the session that data centers are a state project and while the county has no say in their placement, JCDA wants to know how they will affect us. Only people who were in favor of such construction were invited and public comment was not allowed, but to be fair, the JCDA board members posed a number of good questions about water usage, pollution, rising electric costs, loss of manpower for electric utility repair during our frequent storms, and what sort of things places that already have data centers wish they had done differently.
Chris Morris, the Director of the Data Economy Office in the West Virginia Department of Commerce spoke extensively about how the state planned to coordinate with local authorities and accommodate their needs even though current legislation does not require such cooperation. He claimed that there would be large monetary benefits and few environmental impacts and that the data centers would not use much water; that electric rates would not go up; and that they would only consider bids from large companies who had the resources to pay for any needed infrastructure.
He also said that he was not even considering micro grids, which are small power plants meant to supply a single customer (e.g., data center). Micro grids are often touted as the way to reduce data center impact on local power rates, and when done with clean energy like solar, wind, or water power, a way to reduce pollution. A single data center can use as much electricity as 75,000 households – Jefferson County currently has just under 22,000 households. But this won’t affect our electricity? Or it’s infrastructure? Even though it’s going to be drawn from the same grid as ours?
Morris said the things Jefferson County would need to supply to attract data centers were low-cost real estate, available water, fiber, available electric power, and services like EMS and fire departments. If these are required, can’t we expect them to be used, and thus to impact us?
The next speaker was Buddy Riser, Executive Director of Economic Development – Executive Director / Secretary – Economic Development Authority of Loudoun County, VA. Riser is a big fan of data centers and credited them with Loudoun County’s financial success. He talked about how little land data centers took and how much money they brought in. In Loudoun County, data centers use post-consumer water that has been treated and is not potable. They have the treatment plants, separate water lines, and other infrastructure for this. Does Jefferson County? Would all this cost the county more than the data centers bring in in tax money?
Angie Banks, the Jefferson County Assessor, talked about how taxes are assessed but was unable to give a dollar amount because she didn’t know how big the project would be. She also failed to mention that HR-2014, which passed last year, states that 70% of the tax collected would go to the state and not to the county where the data center is located.
The JCDA board members seemed to want a data center for Jefferson County, but they also appeared to have done some research and were aware of many of the issues that can arise with these enormous installations. Will they have another session where they hear from those who are not happy with data centers near their homes? Or to scientists and public officials who have dealt with the effects of such projects on the existing landowners? Will they listen to the people who will be impacted by this? Will they allow public comment? They had thoughtful, well considered questions and clearly would like to act in Jefferson.. County’s best interests. Time will tell if they come to the same conclusion about what those interests are as the rest of the people in this county. Watch for upcoming events so you too can participate in discussions about this and other projects that affect us.
This article originally appeared as a letter to the editor in the Spirit of Jefferson on February 12, 2026.
