Will Data Centers Law Be Amended?
Data center campus in Loudoun Co, VA. Find the number of employee parking spaces on the campus.
In its 2025 Regular Session the Legislature passed a bill designed to make West Virginia attractive to companies that construct and operate so-called “data centers.”
The passage of House Bill (HB) 2014, was a major goal of Governor Patrick Morrisey. The bill was controversial at the time, and has since become much more so. While the governor still considers passage of that bill a significant accomplishment, more and more West Virginians are becoming more and more concerned about it.
Data centers are very large buildings that house equipment that stores information electronically. The info on your phone may be stored at such a center near (or not near) you.
Governor Morrisey promotes these centers as “economic development.” The buildings often cover land the size of several football fields, but they employ precious few people. Granted, the salaries of the employees are on the high side, for those few folks who can get the jobs. But these centers use prodigious amounts of water to cool the equipment. They are also quite noisy, as anybody living near one can tell you.
This industry is exceptionally capital-intensive (voila, very few jobs), so there is a possibility of collecting significant tax revenue. But unlike the laws in other states with data centers, HB 2014 takes much of the property tax revenue away from local governments and gives it to the state treasury.
Morrisey wanted this provision in the bill to help him further reduce the state income tax. But this move, in my view, perpetuates a major historic flaw in West Virginia government. West Virginia has a higher percentage of government activity at the state (rather than local) level than most other states. This applies to public education, law enforcement, human services, environmental protection, you name it.
Another provision that engendered significant hue and cry when the bill was before the legislature was one that exempts most of these centers from any local control. It was not enough to take away tax money from city and town councils, county commissions, and local school boards. Under HB 2014, there will be no local land use or any other kinds of regulations.
There are four places in our state that have so far been threatened with data centers. They are in Mingo County, Mason County, Tucker County and at a location straddling the Berkeley-Jefferson county line. Local opposition has emerged at all four locations.
In private conversations with legislators, some representing our area of the state and some from other regions, I sense that several lawmakers who voted for HB 2014 are open to revisiting it. They’ve heard from constituents about the problems with the law.
I personally don’t think we should be giving any tax or legal breaks in an attempt to recruit data centers to West Virginia. As I see it, the potential for environmental degradation is greater than the potential for economic improvement. If we must have these things in our state, here are suggestions for how to make data centers less onerous.
Eliminate the blanket exemption from local zoning and other local rules. Why should one industry get a break that other industries do not? Many industries that have already located in our state, and are obeying all the local rules, employ more people and cause fewer environmental problems than data centers.
If we must govern from Charleston, adopt some state-level land use rules regulating where data centers can be located. Abandoned strip mines and other so-called “brownfield” sites would certainly suffice. But keep them away from population centers, even small ones. Moreover, let’s not permit them near high-tourist areas or on some of the finest farmland in America (like the Shenandoah and South Branch Valleys). Also, require data centers to recycle the water they use.
Let local governments have a much larger share of the property tax revenue. Increase the share of the counties, municipalities and/or school districts in which data centers locate, and perhaps distribute more to all local governments in the state.
Again, I’m not a fan of data centers, but I offer these suggestions to be helpful.
This article was originally published in the Martinsburg Journal, Jan. 13, 2026.
