Virginia EO 22 (2026) — data center accountability + AI task force

Va. Exec. Order No. 22 (Sept. 18, 2026), issued under Article V of the Constitution of Virginia and Va. Code §§ 2.2-103 and 2.2-110. PART I implements the Virginia Data Center Accountability Framework, organized around five pillars (transparent community engagement; environmental protection; affordability; clean energy and grid reliability; workforce). The Office of the Chief Energy Officer is designated implementation lead. Immediately operative provisions: (I)(B)(2) prohibits executive branch agencies, departments, boards, commissions, authorities and employees under the Governor's supervision from entering into, enforcing, or requiring any NDA preventing public disclosure of material information about a proposed commercial data center development, its public incentives, anticipated resource demands, or potential community impacts, with existing contractual commitments honored and an extraordinary-circumstances/national-security carve-out; (I)(B)(4) provides that 'Effective upon issuance of this Executive Order, VEDP shall not provide assistance through the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program, any expedited permitting program, or any similar discretionary state economic development, site-readiness, or expedited review program for a new data center project with an anticipated peak electrical demand of 25 MW or greater'; and (I)(C)(3) states that 'The Eastern Virginia Groundwater Management Area shall be designated as a cooling water scarcity area.' Deliverable deadlines: 120 days — Office of the Chief Energy Officer publishes a Data Center Planning and Community Engagement Toolkit; 180 days — DEQ accelerated timeline/workplan for noise rulemaking, DEQ backup-generation cumulative impact findings, DEQ cooling-water-scarcity workplan, Chief Energy Officer methane findings, Virginia Works workforce data-collection criteria; 240 days — Virginia Energy siting and regional-opportunity recommendations; end of CY2027 — proposed VA-LEAD (Virginia Local Energy and Accountable Data Centers) tiered designation criteria and implementation plan. PART II creates a rapid-response AI Task Force co-led by the Chief Transformation Officer, Counsel to the Governor and Secretary of Administration, supported by a newly established AI Policy Planning Unit in the Office of the Chief Transformation Officer, charged with workforce-displacement, data-privacy and cybersecurity risk (including AI agents/bots against state systems and critical infrastructure), identifying existing Virginia enforcement and regulatory authority applicable to AI harms, multistate and international partnership, and direct coordination with named frontier developers (Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft). The Task Force reports continuously until terminated at the Governor's direction. The order RESCINDS Youngkin Exec. Order No. 30 (Jan. 18, 2024) and Executive Directive No. 5 (Sept. 20, 2023), while preserving policies, standards and guidelines already published under EO 30 'unless or until replaced through a future executive or agency action.' Effective upon signing; remains in force unless amended or rescinded.