Washington stepped back, and the data-center power fight just got very local. Quick context on today’s development: The Ratepayer Protection Act wouldn’t have forced a national large-load tariff, but it would have required state regulators to consider making 100 MW-plus data centers pay the full incremental grid and generation costs built to serve them. It cleared the House 417-3, leaving the Senate as the unresolved bottleneck before the midterm election calendar. This is The Data Center Daily. Virginia’s moving, Missouri’s got a tariff on paper, and a New Mexico court cleared the next hurdle—so who’s actually footing the bill? For updates on this story — Federal large-load cost recovery standard — tap follow so the next episode lands in your feed. From Shannon Heckt at InsideNoVa:
Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Friday unveiled a package of legislative proposals to rein in the data center industry in Virginia, with goals to tighten environmental regulations, increase cost allocation for the industry, and make the proposal process more transparent by barring non-disclosure agreements between localities and data center developers.
Virginia finally put the NDA racket in writing. Executive Order 22 bars secrecy between data-center developers and public bodies—so when a locality cuts a deal, people can see it before they inherit the grid upgrades, water demand, and bill. Spanberger signed it Friday, September 18, then followed it with a legislative package: more industry cost allocation, environmental rules, and a proposed approval threshold above 25 megawatts. In Virginia, 25 MW is not a boutique project. And no moratorium. So the construction machine keeps moving while Richmond writes the guardrails. Fine—but the NDA ban better reach any side letter about who pays for a substation upgrade. Five pillars, but the test is simpler: can the SCC trace a large-load project’s costs to that project, and can a county tell residents what it signed? Executive orders start the process. The January 2027 session decides the enforceable terms. Santa Fe New Mexican, with Nicholas Gilmore:
The New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday paved the way for stalled permitting processes to restart for Project Jupiter, a hyperscale data center under construction in Doña Ana County. The court denied challenges by two environmental advocacy groups arguing in separate petitions that proceedings for state air quality and water use permits for the controversial project lacked due process.
New Mexico’s Supreme Court cleared the procedural roadblock for Project Jupiter: air-quality and water-use proceedings can restart, and the Santa Teresa campus can draw from its well again. The permit process is moving, but the 1,400-acre AI campus still doesn’t have its finished operating license. And the well matters. A multibillion-dollar build gets its water flowing while residents are still fighting over consumption and pollution—so yeah, people in Doña Ana County are going to see that as more than courtroom housekeeping. Oracle says it’ll work with the Environment Department and other authorities. Fine. The Santa Fe New Mexican also reports Oracle has tied two gigawatts of New Mexico renewables and carbon-capture research to the site’s Bloom fuel-cell microgrid. Regulators now get to test those details in public proceedings. Exactly—“continue working” is corporate fog until the air permit, water permit, and conditions on that microgrid are written down. The court reopened the arena; it didn’t settle the water or pollution fight. Here's Rahul Somvanshi at Karmactive:
He offered his GRID Savings Act as an alternative. Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio then blocked Heinrich’s bill. Both bills are now dead. The Senate leaves for a recess in two weeks. No data center electricity legislation will pass before the November midterms.
We covered the House’s 417-to-3 ratepayer bill Friday. Now the Senate has blocked it—and Senator Heinrich’s tougher alternative. Congress is out before the midterms. And the House bill only asked states to consider making large loads pay. It couldn’t even clear that bar. Meanwhile, families get handed the transmission tab. Those $15 to $35 monthly residential-bill estimates over five years are projections, not bills yet. But after the Virginia package we just covered, it’s clear the live rulebook is at state PUCs and FERC. Washington had a 417-to-3 vote and still found a way to keep the meter running. Every utility now gets to write its own version of who pays when a giant campus wants a new substation. Here's Ty Albright at Newstalk KZRG:
Liberty Utilities is asking Missouri regulators to approve a new rate structure aimed at keeping the cost of serving massive electric users from being passed on to homes and small businesses. The proposed “large load” tariff would apply to new or expanding customers expected to use at least 25 megawatts of electricity — a threshold that could include a future hyperscale data center in Joplin.
Liberty spelled out the terms. At 25 megawatts, you get a 15-year deal, an 80% minimum bill, and potentially 100% upfront for the wires and generation built for you. Good. Bring your own grid expansion. And curtailment rights. Liberty can cut a large customer during a system emergency, putting large-load flexibility right into a Missouri tariff filing. The House got to 417 to 3, then the Senate let the federal bill die. Now Missouri’s PSC gets the live question: who pays if a 25-megawatt customer wants a bespoke substation, then bails? Virginia put 25 megawatts at the center of its approval proposals; Liberty uses that same threshold for cost responsibility. State by state, 25 megawatts is becoming the line while Washington stays out. The Lincolnian Online, with Dante Gardener:
Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) executives said the company is expanding its development pipeline in response to customer demand, with planned annual investment of $5 billion to $7 billion expected to be concentrated in established markets where it already operates interconnected digital ecosystems.
Equinix plans to spend $5 billion to $7 billion a year on this, concentrated in markets where it already has interconnection density and customer visibility. Sensible strategy—but capital guidance isn’t a power-delivery schedule. Investors occasionally forget that part. And 600 to 700 megawatts under development is a very different figure from the roughly 3 gigawatts of controlled, designed power they’re touting. I want to see the interconnection agreements, permits, and actual utility capacity before we clap for the three-gigawatt slide. They do have roughly 11,000 customers and 500,000 cross-connects, so Equinix can plausibly spot demand earlier than a greenfield developer chasing an AI render. But that $5 billion-to-$7 billion range still needs to turn into phased sites with power dates, not just customer demand signals. Especially after the Virginia rules we just covered. “Established market” can mean existing relationships—or an established fight over substations, water, and whose monthly bill absorbs the upgrade. Have feedback, story ideas, or a correction? Email us at datacenterdaily at lantern podcasts dot com. We’d love to hear what you’re seeing in the data center world.
We’re watching Virginia’s next legislative session in January 2027, when Spanberger’s data center framework moves from executive order and proposals into the lawmaking process.
Links to every story are in the show notes, so take a look at whichever ones you want to explore further. That’s The Data Center Daily for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.