Virginia’s energy crisis: Data centers, dominion, or Policy decisions - who’s to blame?
Over the summer, a resident in Lovettsville called me about one thing: the massive transmission line proposed to cut through his backyard. I drove out to meet him, and by the time we finished talking, a few more neighbors had pulled up chairs. I have had some version of that conversation with families across Loudoun and Prince William counties, and they all ask the same question: why is this happening to us?
No family bought a home expecting two-hundred-foot transmission towers or a data center complex next to their backyard. No farmer who spent decades on a piece of land expected it to become a utility corridor. No parent wants to explain why power lines run past their kid's school.
In northern Virginia, we've watched this story unfold. Data centers have gone from a blessing to a curse. At first, tax revenue helped lower property taxes and fund our schools. But now, there's a data center on every corner, massive transmission line projects looming over our schools and neighborhood, and energy bills that are steadily creeping up. We're facing serious impacts on our quality of life. My view has always been that our district has done more than its fair share in hosting these data centers, and it’s time to start putting them outside our district. But data centers are only half the story.
The Real Culprit: A Power Grid Being Squeezed From Both Directions
AI is pushing demand for computing power far past what anyone predicted, and Northern Virginia absorbs more of it than nearly anywhere on earth. As much as 70 percent of the world's internet traffic passes through Loudoun County's "Data Center Alley."
At the same time, Virginia has passed clean energy mandates that are choking our supply, like the Virginia Clean Energy Act (VCEA), a clean energy mandate that forces Dominion to phase out the power plants that used to absorb that growth. The state also just rejoined RGGI, a carbon program that allows power plants to buy carbon allowances and pass that cost to customers.
Whether you agree with those policies or not, demand for electricity is growing faster than the grid was built to handle, and somebody has to close that gap. Right now it's ratepayers, watching transmission lines get proposed through their backyards and data centers built in their communities.
Suhas Subramanyam Saw It Coming. Then He Waited Ten Years.
In a recent interview with Caleb Max at the NAIA, Suhas Subramanyam said that years ago, while working at the White House on AI policy, he warned then-Congresswoman Barbara Comstock that nobody was thinking about the power lines, the community impact, or the utility bills that data center growth would bring. By his own telling, he saw this crisis coming before almost anyone.
So what did he do with that warning? He built a political career.
Suhas is an attorney and former White House staffer who has held three elected offices in six years: Delegate, State Senator, and Congressman. In each one, he represented the most data-center-dense stretch of land in the country, but did very little to protect our community from rising energy bills, or transmission lines and data centers encroaching on our quality of life.
Here’s his record:
Delegate, 2020 to 2023.
Suhas Subramanyam championed the bill that cleared the way for the Virginia Clean Economy Act to pass. He also backed Virginia's entry into RGGI that added cost pressure. The ratepayer refund he championed gave a typical family about $67 over a year. However, the rate increases we’ve seen since then have cancelled out that refund several times over, and the policies Suhas helped pass are adding more: about $11 a month for the offshore wind project today, and roughly $10 to $13 a month more as the carbon program takes effect. That is what happens when a political agenda comes before reality.
State Senator, 2024.
Eight years after he says he saw the problem coming, Suhas filed the first data center related bill I can find, SB 192. It would have required data centers to meet energy efficiency standards to keep their sales tax exemption. So, the bill was about how data centers use energy, not where they are built or who pays for the grid. It was carried over to 2025, never became law, and did nothing for the families living next to these facilities.
Congressman, 2025 to 2026.
Suhas voted yes on a bipartisan bill to make data centers pay for the grid upgrades they require, but interestingly, as the representative of “Data Center Alley” he never signed on as a cosponsor or put any real weight behind the bill. Then, eight weeks before Election Day, he introduced a four-bill package including his own version of the ratepayer protection bill (questions answered). One requires large energy users to pay for grid upgrades, one asks the Department of Energy to publish siting best practices, one sets standards for measuring data center energy and water use, and one requires a federal strategy to protect communities around data centers from adversaries. None has a realistic path to passage in this Congress, and none limits where a data center can go or helps the families who already live next to one.
Those families are paying the price for a ten-year delay. They live with the noise, the transmission lines, and the change to their neighborhoods, and a bill announced weeks before an election does not undo any Suhas’ 10 years of inaction. If we re-elect Suhas, we should expect more of the same: more conveniently timed announcements, minimal action, and the same communities paying the price.
A Life of Service, Not a Political Career
While Suhas spent the last 10 years building a political career, I have spent my life in service. After 30 years in the Air Force, I retired as a Colonel, and I led a team of 95 people as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, responsible for overseeing complex national security systems.
I served under presidents of both parties. Power in Washington changes every few years, but my mission never did: serve the country and its people, not a political party. Running for Congress is a continuation of that service.
I know how to take a hard problem, build a plan, and see it through, and that is what this problem needs. I will work across the aisle to deliver real results, because whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, you are affected by the data center and energy crisis in our state.
What I'll Do in Congress
Many of the decisions behind this crisis are made at the state and local level, but Washington still has real leverage and here is how I will apply it.
Start with the families who already live next to a data center.
A standard for future facilities does nothing for the neighbors of the ones already built. I will work with state officials in Richmond and our local governments to deliver property tax relief to families who live next to a data center, as I said at the debate. They can use the money to remediate the impact living next to a data center has on their lives. These families live with the noise and the change to their neighborhoods, while the whole county benefits from the tax revenue. They deserve something back.
Set real limits on where data centers can be built.
Nothing stops a data center from going up beside a neighborhood, a school, or a family farm. I will introduce legislation for federal minimum setbacks between new data centers and our communities. Suhas's siting bill only asks the Department of Energy to publish best practices, but best practices are not enough. Families need real minimums, and any community that wants a data center for the tax revenue and jobs should have a clear starting point from the federal government so it does not have to negotiate alone against a tech company.
Protect the grid as a national security asset.
Northern Virginia's data centers house sensitive federal systems that cannot withstand a blackout. Cramming so much of the world's data infrastructure into one small stretch of Virginia also makes us a target. Suhas has told Congress our density makes this region a more attractive target than Washington, D.C., yet no binding action has followed. I have spent my career assessing threats to critical infrastructure and executing plans to protect it. I will push to have this grid treated like the national security infrastructure it is, which brings federal attention and resources.
Bring back the ratepayer protection bill and get it passed.
Right now, the cost of new transmission built for data centers is spread across everyone's electric bill. The bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act passed the House 417 to 3, Suhas voted yes but never signed on as a cosponsor, and eight weeks before his election he filed his own version instead of putting his weight behind a bill that was already in motion. The Senate then failed to advance the bill on September 30. In the next Congress, I will work with members of both parties to bring it back and write a bill that can pass and ensures the companies driving the demand pay for the infrastructure they require, not the people in the community.
Build an all-of-the-above energy strategy, with natural gas now and nuclear for the long term.
Virginia cannot mandate away dispatchable power and expect the grid to keep up. Nuclear plants take years to build, so in the short term, Virginia needs to let Dominion build natural gas plants here at home. Natural gas is cleaner than coal, and it can absorb the demand we face right now, so we stop importing power from coal plants in other states and stringing new transmission lines across our farms, neighborhoods, and schools. In the long term, Virginia and our country need to prioritize a bold re-invest in nuclear energy, starting today. Although the plants take longer to build, the energy produced is safe, clean, reliable, and American-made. With the energy demand we have, Virginia has every reason to lead the charge on nuclear energy.
Get independent answers on health effects.
Residents near these facilities report noise and, in Sterling, diesel exhaust from backup generators. There is very little independent, long-term research on what living next to a data center does to people's health. I will push for an NIH study, free of politics and not funded or written by the industry.
The Choice
I’ve said throughout the campaign that VA-10 has done its fair share in hosting data centers. This region said yes to data centers because the tax revenue helped fund our schools, roads, and public safety while keeping the burden off homeowners. But that success created demand nobody planned for, and when private property and the character of our communities are at risk, I will always stand with the residents affected, in Lovettsville and across Virginia’s 10th district. Nobody's land should be taken by eminent domain for a project born out of poor policy decisions.
Every dollar added to a family's energy bill because of a policy failure is a dollar that does not go toward a saving for a down payment, starting that small business, or planning for their kid's future. When the companies driving this demand pay for their own infrastructure, that money stays in your pocket. When we treat this grid like the national security priority it is and set real limits on where data centers go, your family's safety and property values stay protected. When Virginia builds its own power, costs fall and we stop depending on someone else's grid.
None of that is complicated, but it takes a congressman who acts years sooner, not one who files bills weeks before an election.
Sources: Loudoun County data center tax revenue and residential tax base, Loudoun County Government (2026); Data Center Alley share of global internet traffic (estimate), Washingtonian (2016); Virginia Clean Economy Act fossil plant retirement schedule, Dominion Energy SEC Form 10-Q (2020); Virginia RGGI re-entry and ratepayer cost recovery, WTVR (2026); Dominion customer refund (about $67 for a typical residential customer), WJLA and WTOP (2022); Dominion biennial review rate increases, Virginia State Corporation Commission (2025); Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind monthly customer cost, VPM News (2025); SB 192 data center sales tax exemption bill summary, NCEL bill tracker (2024); Ratepayer Protection Act (H.R. 9340) House vote, House Energy and Commerce Committee (2026); Senate cloture vote on H.R. 9340, Environment+Energy Leader and Sen. Husted press release (2026); National Data Center Plan (H.R. 10321 and H.R. 10322), Rep. Subramanyam press release and GovInfo (2026); Virginia electricity imports, WTVR (2026); natural gas and coal CO2 emissions coefficients, U.S. Energy Information Administration; Suhas Subramanyam offices held and career background, Washington Post (2023) and Wikipedia.