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📣 Make Some (More) Noise! 📣 About Data Centers

We have passed the halfway point in the 2026 WV Legislative Session. Here are two new bills introduced Feb 16. Please MAKE SOME NOISE to SUPPORT HB 5590 & HB 5620. ------------------------------

Background:

✳️ In 2025, we opposed a bill (HB 2014 https://www.wvlegislature.gov/bill_status/Bills_history.cfm?input=2014&year=2025&sessiontype=RS&btype=bill) to encourage the development of data centers and take away any local control. That silencing of local voices has become a flashpoint in WV this past year.

✳️ This year, we have opposed HB 4983 https://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Status/bills_history.cfm?INPUT=4983&year=2026&sessiontype=RS , which advances rules proposed by the WV Department of Commerce to implement last year’s HB 2014. Those rules lack transparency related to environmental and community impacts.

SUMMARY of TODAY’S BILLS:

✳️ HB 5590 https://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Status/bills_history.cfm?INPUT=5590&year=2026&sessiontype=RS and HB 5620 https://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Status/bills_history.cfm?INPUT=5620&year=2026&sessiontype=RS, introduced Feb 16, are two bills we can SUPPORT.

HB 5590 would require high impact data centers to provide public notice of anticipated water usage prior to commencement of construction. Water withdrawals could not exceed the amounts necessary to maintain public water systems and serve other users, even in periods of drought.

HB 5590 constitutes an incremental, but essential, step, in regulating data centers in WV.

HB 5620 would restore local control in the decision-making process on data centers. It would literally repeal the portion of last year’s bill that was intended to silence local voices.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

✳️ Contact your Delegate and tell them to SUPPORT HB 5590 https://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Status/bills_history.cfm?INPUT=5590&year=2026&sessiontype=RS and HB 5620 https://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Status/bills_history.cfm?INPUT=5620&year=2026&sessiontype=RS. Find your Delegate here: https://fastdemocracy.com/find-your-legislators/

✳️ Contact the House Energy & Pubic Works Committee to get HB 5590 on an agenda. Email list:

bill.anderson@wvhouse.gov, jordan.bridges@wvhouse.gov, jeff.campbell@wvhouse.gov, david.cannon@wvhouse.gov, kathie.crouse@wvhouse.gov, henry.dillon@wvhouse.gov, jeff.eldridge@wvhouse.gov, bob.fehrenbacher@wvhouse.gov, david.green@wvhouse.gov, evan.hansen@wvhouse.gov, rick.hillenbrand@wvhouse.gov, josh.holstein@wvhouse.gov, gary.howell@wvhouse.gov, daniel.linville@wvhouse.gov, patrick.lucas@wvhouse.gov, erica.moore@wvhouse.gov, happyjoe.parsons@wvhouse.gov, clay.riley@wvhouse.gov, charles.sheedy@wvhouse.gov, george.street@wvhouse.gov, kayla.young@wvhouse.gov, mark.zatezalo@wvhouse.gov

✳️ Contact the House Judiciary Committee to get HB 5620 on an agenda. Email list:

jb.akers@wvhouse.gov, jim.butler@wvhouse.gov, dana.ferrell@wvhouse.gov, bill.flanigan@wvhouse.gov, shawn.fluharty@wvhouse.gov, joe.funkhouser@wvhouse.gov, evan.hansen@wvhouse.gov, scot.heckert@wvhouse.gov, rick.hillenbrand@wvhouse.gov, josh.holstein@wvhouse.gov, michael.hornby@wvhouse.gov, buck.jennings@wvhouse.gov, laura.kimble@wvhouse.gov, larry.kump@wvhouse.gov, phil.mallow@wvhouse.gov, keith.marple@wvhouse.gov, carl.martin@wvhouse.gov, jordan.maynor@wvhouse.gov, chris.phillips@wvhouse.gov, bill.ridenour@wvhouse.gov, bill.roop@wvhouse.gov, andy.shamblin@wvhouse.gov, bryan.ward@wvhouse.gov, mark.zatezalo@wvhouse.gov