Climate Corner: HB 2014 is a dead end

Mar 29, 2025

Eric Engle

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

House Bill 2014, the Power Generation and Consumption Act of 2025, introduced on 3/18/25 into the WV House of Delegates by Speaker Roger Hanshaw at the behest of Gov. Patrick Morrisey, is a recipe for keeping West Virginia an extraction colony and sacrifice zone, with a 21st Century spin.

HB2014 would enable microgrids (smaller energy grids that are not connected to broader utility grid operations) to utilize fossil fuels instead of renewable energy only, as the law pertaining to microgrid energy use is written today. It would also expand land use options for microgrid districts and “high impact” data centers and allow for certified microgrid districts to avoid being subject to the Public Service Commission “with respect to rates, obtaining a certificate of convenience and necessity, conditions of service or complaints…”

A recent piece published by Reuters News pointed out that the power used by data centers has tripled over the last decade and could triple again by 2028, according to a report by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the Department of Energy issued in December 2024. Last July, 60 data centers operating in what is referred to as Data Center Alley (a 30-square-mile area outside of D.C.) suddenly dropped off the grid and switched to on-site generators. The drop was caused by a standard safety mechanism used by the data center industry to protect electronic equipment, computer chips and more from damage caused by fluctuations in voltage.

This drop-off resulted in a huge surge of excess electricity, forcing grid operator PJM and utility Dominion Energy to reduce output from power plants in order to avoid mass outages across the region. What happens with these microgrids if a safety mechanism triggers a switch to generators? How are those generators going to be powered if not by the microgrid? Will we be seeing generators instead powered by the utility grid and a sudden influx of demand from a data center(s) in a scenario like this?

Data centers also require intensive cooling to counter the heat generated. This often leads to not only further energy demand but extensive water usage. With all the surface and subsurface water already permanently pulled from our region for fracking, as just one example, what will ever-growing and ever more demanding data centers do to our fresh water supplies? What about the waste heat from data centers? How will it be managed or possibly utilized? Will it be managed or put to use at all?

With data centers come high operating costs. Costs for things like components, services and energy are variable, especially if you’re using fossil fuels for power. There can also be supply chain issues, especially in an increasingly unstable world caused by the “very stable genius” regrettably occupying the White House at the moment. The legislation makes mention of taxation of high impact data centers and taxes for microgrid districts, but something we can all bet on is that the private companies involved (e.g., Microsoft, Google, Amazon) will be given every opportunity to avoid taxation and regulatory oversight.

Returning to the issue of land use, these data centers tend to be enormous complexes. The last thing this state needs are more runoff and drainage issues and more roads to have to maintain for these companies while miles and miles of our other roads crumble. There are thousands of people in this state who lack adequate septic systems (if they have one at all) and are not part of communal water and sewer systems, but I’m sure water and sewer will be top of the line for these private companies. Think they’ll let West Virginians in flooded out Southern WV counties come use their facilities routinely?

I understand society’s need for data storage and use and fast computing and that AI is a genie that’s out of the bottle in both good ways and bad. These facilities will be built somewhere, but West Virginia needs these companies to provide strong flows of tax revenue, to be held accountable for their own messes, and to use renewable energy, with maximized energy efficiencies and a focus on sustainability. How many jobs will these data centers and the development and maintenance of these microgrids actually create, both short-term and long-term, and what will the pay and benefits look like for them? The legislation has nothing to say about that, no estimates or predictions. Such figures usually come from separate studies, with industry numbers always comically overstated.

It is long past time for West Virginians to start asking what’s in it for us. We deserve well-paying, safe, accommodating jobs with great benefits and a union contract. We deserve to see large corporations and the wealthy paying their fair share into our tax bases. We deserve clean, safe potable water and healthy, thriving rivers and streams. We deserve clean air and healthy, safe soils and a stable global climate system. We deserve safe, sustainable, well-engineered infrastructure. We deserve sustainable agriculture and development and a circular waste economy.

HB2014 is another dead end. As I write, it is in the House Energy and Public Works Committee where it was introduced, but it will no doubt move quickly with this legislative session coming to an end April 12. You can track the bill’s status at wvlegislature.gov under “Bill Status” by typing in 2014 as the bill number. Let your Delegates and State Senators know that we deserve better than this legislation.

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Eric Engle is board president of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.