In The News
DATA CENTERS IN THE MOUNTAIN STATE: Dividing Up the Spoils
sierraclub.org - June 18, 2026
Mountaintop removal, fracking, and now hyperscale data centers: West Virginia never misses out on the latest trend in environmental and social destruction, thanks to our legislators. Hyperscale data centers use as much electricity as a small city and up to 5 million gallons of water a day to cool their servers—and then return this water to streams at high temperatures, impacting aquatic life. Data centers can increase ambient air temperatures up to six miles away and generate lots of noise and light pollution. Who would want to live near one?
But our governor has made West Virginia as friendly to data center development as possible. HB2014, passed in 2025, lets data centers move in, free from any local zoning laws, while sending 70% of the taxes generated to Charleston. HB2002 sets up a permitting dashboard to operate as a “one-stop-shop” for obtaining and renewing qualifying business permits, effectively streamlining the process in West Virginia. No questions asked, not even of heavily redacted air quality permits. At least seven projects are in the works across the state.
Fundamental Data (FD) got an air quality permit for their off-grid, gas-fired power plant to run Ridgeline Data Center in Tucker County (see the Mountain State Sierran Spring 2026 edition) despite massive local opposition and a lawsuit. Though a second appeal is underway, the project has powerful support in the WV Legislature, including from House of Delegates Speaker Roger Hanshaw, who also works as a lawyer for FD. Representatives for FD told the Wall Street Journal that the facility could be “among the largest data center campuses in the world,” spanning 10,000 acres across Tucker and Grant counties if fully realized.
Monarch Compute Campus in Point Pleasant, Mason County, originally developed by Fidelis New Energy, was acquired by Nscale, a British-based, NVIDIA-backed cloud provider, in March 2026. Like Ridgeline, it will be powered by an off-grid, natural-gas-fired power plant. Microsoft will be their first customer.
Penzance Management, a real estate firm, is investing $4 Billion in their Bedington Campus in the Falling Waters District of Berkeley County to build a data center they are now calling an “Intelligence” Center. As developers, they “build to suit” for hyperscalers. It will likely be grid-connected. This is a speculative project as they don’t have a customer yet.
Not far from the Penzance site, developer QTS is planning two data center buildings on 300 acres in Kearneysville, spanning Jefferson and Berkeley Counties. The properties have access to a natural gas pipeline and two high-capacity electric transmission lines.
TransGas Development Systems, a New-York-based company, is planning the largest natural gas-fueled ammonia plant in the world and two off-grid natural gas power plants to power two data centers, collectively referred to as Adams Fork Data Center Energy Campus in Mingo and Logan Counties. Both the ammonia plant and the power plants have received separate air quality permits from the WV Department of Environmental Protection. Mingo County residents filed a federal lawsuit seeking to halt the Adams Fork project, alleging violations of the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, and National Environmental Policy Act.
As of March 2026, Google acquired approximately 1,700 acres near Buffalo in Putnam County for a proposed multi-billion-dollar data center campus. Google claims that they will use all renewable energy and replenish more water than they consume. Still in the early planning stages, infrastructure, power, and water use have yet to be finalized. Further information is scarce.
Note that the Tucker, Mason, and Mingo County projects all plan to use off-grid (microgrid) power sources to avoid dependence on the PJM grid, claiming this will prevent rising energy costs for ratepayers. But then, as well as the noisy data centers, we are also getting four new gas-fired power plants. That means increased demand for fracking and its associated air pollution, methane release and radioactive fracking wastewater. The upstream impacts from data centers go well beyond the local noise, light, and air pollution.
Beyond the environmental impacts, we must consider the wisdom of massive data center build-out. New technology, such as the microscopic optical chip developed for quantum computing, can manage data with components smaller than a grain of salt, potentially replacing bulky, expensive hardware. What happens then to all the stranded warehouses full of computers and their power plants?
More fundamentally, why are we rushing headlong into this uncharted A.I. revolution with no consideration for how it will transform our social structure, economy, politics, warfare, privacy, education, and emotional well-being? Should Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg get to decide the future of life on Earth? We desperately need careful, thoughtful leadership, not legislators who throw out the welcome mat to every speculator who comes along promoting a dangerous technology.
Supreme court upholds municipal zoning authority over natural gas drilling
wvnews.com - June 3, 2026 -Staff Report
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia ruled Wednesday that a municipality's local zoning laws are not entirely preempted by state environmental regulations, reinstating a lower court decision that favored the City of Weirton over a natural gas drilling company.
The high court reversed an opinion by the Intermediate Court of Appeals of West Virginia, which had previously found that the state's Natural Gas Horizontal Well Control Act stripped municipalities of their power to regulate the location of horizontal gas wells via local zoning ordinances.
Justice William "Bill" Wooton delivered the 4-1 opinion of the court, with Justice Charles Trump IV deeming himself disqualified and not participating, and Barbour/Taylor Circuit Judge Shawn D. Nines sitting by temporary assignment.
The legal battle began after SWN Production Company, LLC, which holds a lease to drill on a 301-acre tract within Weirton, applied for a conditional use permit in June 2021 to construct a pad for up to 14 horizontal gas wells. The Weirton Board of Zoning Appeals denied the permit in October 2021, citing unreliable traffic projections, failure to address impacts on the underlying aquifer, and incompatibility with the city's comprehensive commercial development plans.
SWN filed two actions in the Circuit Court of Brooke County: a petition for a writ of certiorari challenging the board's denial, and a declaratory judgment action claiming state environmental laws gave the Department of Environmental Protection exclusive power over drilling locations, invalidating the city's zoning rules.
The circuit court initially rejected SWN's preemption argument, but the Intermediate Court of Appeals subsequently reversed that ruling, pointing to state law that grants the Department of Environmental Protection "sole and exclusive authority to regulate the permitting, location, and any and all other drilling and production processes".
The Supreme Court rejected the intermediate court's analysis, characterizing the overlap between state and local authority as a "false conflict" resulting from separate entities legitimately pursuing their delegated legislative goals.
"SWN has demonstrated no more than an incidental overlap between the authority of the Department of Environmental Protection under the Horizontal Well Control Act and the authority of the City of Weirton pursuant to the Land Use Planning Act," Wooton wrote.
The court noted that while the state is sovereign, the Legislature explicitly delegated powers to municipalities under the Land Use Planning Act to plan orderly development and regulate specific land uses.
In a separate but consolidated appeal, the Supreme Court also affirmed the intermediate court's dismissal of SWN’s appeal regarding the denial of its conditional use permit. The high court agreed that the intermediate court lacked jurisdiction because the matter involved a writ of certiorari, which is an extraordinary remedy outside its statutory authority. Legal appeals of such zoning enforcement decisions must be made directly from a circuit court to the Supreme Court.
Marshall’s IDEA district moves forward with planning
wowktv.com - May 29, 2026 - Sarah Davis
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WOWK) — Six blocks of the City of Huntington are getting closer to being a part of the Herd, with Marshall University’s idea for the space getting more details on paper.
The innovation, or IDEA District, incorporates the area between Marshall University and downtown Huntington.
Named by university president Brad Smith, the district stands for “impossible doesn’t exist anymore” and is projected to cost more than $200 million to complete.
New renderings from the university show a more detailed plan for what the six blocks will mean for the university and the city.
The Intuit/Foundever addition will offer jobs to Marshall University students, working with Intuit and TurboTax.
The Innovation Resource Hub will present a space intended to connect students, educators, entrepreneurs and researchers.
The district will also offer building and space options for businesses and companies to set up headquarters and office spaces.
Vice President for Strategic Initiatives Toney Stroud told 13 News Reporter Sarah Davis that housing and a possible lodging space are also on the table.
“We would like to get some housing on this district, eventually hoping some outside developers will come in and start partnering with us to help with some housing,” he said. “Housing is a need we have here in this area and hoping we can help solve some of that issue as well.”
Two additions in the district have already gotten their bearings; the Brad D. Smith Center for Business and Innovation, which opened in 2024 and the Institute for Cybersecurity, which is expected to open in 2027.
The Marshall Advanced Manufacturing Center (MAMC) is also up and coming.
Stroud says it’s all being done in hopes to create more opportunities here at home.
Not to mention, build more confidence in Appalachia.
“Too many times in West Virginia, we have not done a real good job of telling our story,” Stroud said. “We have a lot to offer. We have a proud history, a proud tradition. We have a very loyal workforce, and too many times in the past we’ve heard we can’t do it, and we want to transform that mindset.”
“We can do anything we put our minds to here,” he said. “We have the people with the grit, with the personality, with the determination to do that.”
Stroud said they hope to have the IDEA district 80% occupied by the end of 2029.
BZA wants legal input on limits of ‘reasonable accommodation’
Dominion Post - May 22, 2026 - Ben Conley
MORGANTOWN – The Morgantown Board of Zoning Appeals walked away from its most recent session with questions for the city’s legal counsel.
At what point does a request for reasonable accommodation submitted under the federal Fair Housing Act become unreasonable?
Exactly how much discretion does the body have, and what are the factors it can and must consider, when weighing in on such requests?
On Wednesday evening, the BZA took up a request for reasonable accommodation submitted by Morgantown Sober Living Inc. for a group residential facility at 318 Wilson Ave.
Under city code, a group residential facility is allowable by right in single family residential zoning districts, but such uses must provide minimum off-street parking equal to one space per employee plus one space for every five residents.
Based on the planned use, this facility would require four off-street spaces. It has room for one.
If the entire scenario sounds familiar, it should.
In September, West Virginia Sober Living came before the BZA for the same reason regarding a group residential facility at 201 Waitman St.
In that case, three off-street parking spaces were required by code, but the property had none.
Initially, WVSL submitted its request to waive the parking requirement as a standard application for variance relief.
The BZA denied the application, explaining the additional on-street parking associated with the facility would add to parking scarcity and congestion issues already plaguing the neighborhood.
Three months later, WVSL returned to the BZA, this time seeking reasonable accommodations regarding the parking requirements under the guidelines of the Fair Housing Act, which recognizes recovery from substance abuse disorder as a covered condition.
In the request for accommodation, WVSL pointed out that waiving off-street parking requirements in favor of on-street passes is already common practice for the city in that neighborhood and others.
The city concurred.
In providing the recommendations of city staff, Morgantown Zoning Administrator Sailor Thompson explained, one, that the Fair Housing Act mandates housing be offered to handicapped persons in a manner equal to that offered to other residents; two, that on-street parking passes “are typically provided to other single-family homes within the neighborhood without requiring the construction of off-street parking spaces.”
Under that framing, and with the recommendation of city staff, the board approved the request. That approval was subsequently appealed to Monongalia County Circuit Court by neighboring property owners. It remains an open issue before the court.
It was clear that the Waitman Street process was on the minds of BZA members as they deliberated the Wilson Avenue request.
They noted the property on Wilson Avenue is subject to the same parking and density concerns the board considered when initially addressing the nearby Waitman Street property.
Heidi Cook explained that despite her misgivings and the concerns raised by some of the surrounding property owners, she felt “bullied” into supporting the Waitman Street request when it was returned to the BZA citing federal law.
Thompson said the “reasonable accommodation must be granted if it is, one, reasonable, two, necessary, and three, directly linked to enabling equal housing opportunity.”
It’s not required, he continued, if it would impose undue financial or administrative burdens or fundamentally alter the nature of the zoning regulation.
“I guess what I’m driving at is if we grant too many of these, it does significantly alter because it’s changing the characteristics of the neighborhood,” BZA Chair Chris Benison said. “There’s a reason the parking regulations are written into the zoning code. There are good reasons for that. History happens. Observations are made. ‘Oh, we have these vehicles in this very dense neighborhood and there are conflicts and congestion. This is not working. We need to adopt rules.’”
Benison said the board must defer to federal law when properly applied but questioned whether it’s being properly applied if the surrounding neighborhood suffers as a result.
“When does a reasonable accommodation under ADA law become an unreasonable accommodation for all stakeholders in a community,” he asked.
The BZA tabled the Wilson Avenue request pending guidance from legal counsel and asked city staff to provide historical precedent set by the board regarding off-street parking requirements in the area.