Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Sept. 18, 2026, signed Executive Order 22, which took effect on signing. It bars executive-branch agencies under her supervision from nondisclosure agreements that hide key facts about data-center projects. It also cuts new projects needing 25 megawatts (MW) or more at peak out of the state's fast-track site programs, and it creates a rapid-response AI Task Force. Virginia has the densest cluster of data centers in the U.S., so these limits on secrecy and state help change the near-term outlook for permits and power bills there. Ending by-right local approval, though, still needs legislation in 2027.
The order is aimed at agencies under the governor. It is not a statewide pause on development: it does not stop new applications or repeal data-center tax breaks. Its ban on nondisclosure agreements covers state bodies and employees, not local officials. A companion Data Center Accountability Framework and the governor's announcement mix steps the order takes now with goals for the 2027 General Assembly, including ending by-right approval for projects above 25 MW.
Under the order, executive-branch agencies, boards, commissions, authorities and other employees under the governor's supervision may not enter into, enforce or require nondisclosure agreements that keep the public from learning material facts about a proposed commercial data center. That covers its incentives, the resources it needs and its effects on the community. Existing agreements will be honored unless extraordinary or national-security circumstances apply. The order also bars the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) from helping new data-center projects with expected peak demand of 25 MW or more. VEDP can no longer offer them the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program, any expedited permitting program or any similar discretionary state program for economic development, site readiness or faster review.
Within 120 days, the Office of the Chief Energy Officer must publish a first Data Center Planning and Community Engagement Toolkit for local governments. Within 180 days, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) must deliver accelerated workplans for data-center noise rules and for rules on areas short of cooling water. In the same period it must report findings from a review of the combined impact of diesel and other backup generators. The order names the Eastern Virginia Groundwater Management Area a cooling-water scarcity area. Virginia Works, with the Secretary of Labor, must draw up criteria for collecting workforce data on each project within 180 days. The Chief Energy Officer must also press utilities, the State Corporation Commission and PJM, the regional grid operator, to divide costs so households are shielded from the expense of serving very large power users.
The AI Task Force will be co-led by the Chief Transformation Officer, the Counsel to the Governor and the Secretary of Administration, supported by a new AI Policy Planning Unit. Its work includes job losses from AI, data privacy, cybersecurity risks from AI agents and bots, coordination with leading AI developers including Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft, and continuous reporting to the governor. The order also rescinds Glenn Youngkin's Executive Order 30 (2024) and Executive Directive 5 (2023). The governor's office says some parts of the framework start now through the order, while others, including ending by-right approval and broader requirements for utilities, still need the General Assembly.
Much will depend on how localities use the Toolkit and how strict DEQ's noise and cooling-water rules turn out to be. Lawmakers in the 2027 session would have to write limits on by-right approval and a statewide ban on commercial nondisclosure agreements into law. How the AI Task Force will turn its reporting into concrete proposals is not yet clear.