Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger reaffirmed her commitment to tackling rising energy costs on Sunday, warning that the state faces an “energy crisis” unless new policies are implemented to hold major power users accountable.
According to CBS News, during an interview with Face the Nation, Spanberger said energy policies in neighboring states are driving up the cost of electricity, particularly in southwest Virginia.
“We have to be clear-eyed about the fact that we will have an energy crisis headed into the future,” Spanberger said.
Virginia is home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers — massive facilities that power artificial intelligence technology and consume huge amounts of electricity. While Gov. Glenn Youngkin said these centers brought in $1 billion in tax revenue in 2024, they have also contributed to a nearly 7% increase in power bills across the state.
Spanberger said her administration will focus on ensuring data centers “pay their fair share” of energy costs and that Virginia boosts its own power production to meet demand.
“It will be important that large-scale energy users, particularly data centers, that the public know that they are paying their fair share for the energy that they are using,” she said. “And we have to increase our energy production here at home, so that we can meet the demand, certainly of larger-scale energy users, but also of increased demand from our communities.”
Her plan calls for expanding local energy generation, improving storage efficiency, fixing cross-state regulatory issues, and making energy subsidies more accessible to low-income residents. One key focus is preventing “data centers [from driving] up energy costs for everyone else in Virginia.”
“It’s a real challenge that we have to get ahead of,” Spanberger said. “It’s a challenge that is pervasive in our communities, and particularly acute in southwest Virginia.”
Spanberger, a Democrat and former congresswoman from northern and central Virginia, defeated Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears by more than 14 points in this year’s election. When she takes office in January, she will become Virginia’s first woman governor.
