The Lyceum: Virginia Daily — Mar 23, 2026

Virginia is running on two clocks this week: the governor's April 13 bill-signing deadline, which forces decisions on immigration enforcement, gun restrictions, recreational cannabis, and carbon markets — and the April 23 budget special session, where the $1.6 billion data center tax fight either gets resolved or pushes the state toward a shutdown countdown. In between, a $6 billion Norfolk floodwall cost overrun, a gas plant approval that defied 200 public comments, and a mysterious boom that rattled windows from Gainesville to Leesburg remind you that Virginia's growth story is increasingly a story about who absorbs the costs.

If you live in Fairfax, Loudoun, or Prince William — or manage employees who do — the bills that landed on the governor's desk today are not abstract policy. They're about what happens the next time a local deputy encounters someone without immigration papers.

Virginia's participation in the federal 287(g) program — which lets local law enforcement act as immigration agents — went from zero agreements before 2025 to over 30 under Governor Youngkin. ICE arrests surged to nearly 7,000 between January and mid-October 2025, roughly seven times the prior year's pace. Spanberger ordered state agencies to end their 287(g) deals in February, but that directive doesn't reach local governments. As of March 20, 26 local law enforcement agencies and two regional jail authorities still have active ICE agreements.

Two measures approved by the General Assembly — HB1441 and SB783 — would restrict those agreements by barring informal cooperation without a valid judicial warrant and limiting when state and local officers may perform federal immigration enforcement. Other bills protect courthouses and schools from enforcement actions. State Sen. Saddam Azlan Salim, D–Fairfax, made it personal during floor debate, describing his own family being pulled over by federal officers because of their appearance. Abbey Philips, director of policy at the Legal Aid Justice Center, called the session "enormous victories for immigrant rights."

If Spanberger signs by April 13, those 26 remaining local agreements face a direct legal challenge. The enforcement geography matters: active ICE agreements skew toward Northern Virginia's outer suburbs and the Shenandoah Valley, meaning the practical effect will differ sharply by county. Expect individual sheriffs to push back publicly — some have already signaled they'll treat the restrictions as an infringement on local authority.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers revised the cost of Norfolk's long-promised floodwall to $6 billion — up from $4.2 billion last year — and pushed completion to 2037. The project covers 8 miles of barriers to shield 40,000 downtown properties, and the price jump triples the state's share to $1.8 billion.

This matters far beyond Hampton Roads. Virginia Beach and Chesapeake have pitched in matching funds, but the ballooning cost strains budgets already stretched by beach replenishment and the state's own unresolved spending plan. Norfolk's port complex handles roughly $100 billion in cargo annually; repeated flood shutdowns aren't theoretical — they're the baseline risk the wall is supposed to eliminate.

If the federal approval hearing on April 10 locks in the revised scope, every locality in Tidewater faces a harder question about whether to fund its share or wait for federal dollars that may never fully materialize. Sen. Louise Lucas, D–Portsmouth, has called the project a "boondoggle" that delays private protections. Watch for Portsmouth's opt-out drama and whether the Corps imposes new cost-sharing formulas that shift the burden further to local taxpayers.

Fluvanna County supervisors voted 4-1 today to approve CPower Energy's 500-megawatt gas plant off Route 53, an $800 million project that promises 300 construction jobs and $50 million in annual school taxes — and ignores more than 200 public comments opposing it on air quality and water draw grounds.

The plant feeds Dominion Energy's grid amid surging data center power demand, and DEQ permits are already in hand. Locals cited asthma concerns from similar setups nearby; supervisors argued the economic perks outweigh the risks. The approval unlocks $20 million in proffers for road upgrades, a concession to traffic fears.

Legal challenges are expected by April 1. If opponents win, it blocks CPower's summer groundbreaking and slows capacity additions aimed at serving data center load — which in turn tightens the grid math that Dominion and the SCC are already wrestling with. If the plant proceeds, it becomes a test case for how rural Virginia weighs energy infrastructure tradeoffs when the primary beneficiary is an industry concentrated 150 miles north in Loudoun County.

Tonight is the night in Richmond. City Council is holding its first major public hearing on Mayor Danny Avula's proposed $3.5 billion budget, and the number that will dominate the room is $14 a month — the average utility bill increase designed to fund a five-year, $1.15 billion infrastructure plan for the city's gas, water, and sewer systems.

Council staff say the $14 monthly hike would fund roughly $50 million in immediate road and pothole repairs. Critics argue the hit unfairly targets fixed-income families and point to approximately $200 million in city reserves that could be tapped instead. Supporters counter this is the first real infrastructure funding push in years; Mayor Avula has floated alternatives, including a 5% property tax option.

If public comment tonight runs sharply negative, expect amendments or delays — with ripple effects for local contractors, affordability programs, and service reliability. The timing is brutal: Richmond was just named a "City of Darkness" by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and MuckRock for FOIA stonewalling, making "trust us with your money" a harder sell than it was last week.

The argument over who pays for data center electricity just got its sharpest public airing yet. WHRO reports today that Dominion Energy maintains data centers pay their own way, while energy researchers and advocacy groups — including Clean Virginia and the Sierra Club — argue the grid upgrades and new capacity needed to supply 24/7 hyperscale loads spread costs across all residential customers.

One frequently cited metric: a single hyperscale data center uses as much power as roughly 16,500 homes. That number has moved the debate from wonky SCC filings into the kitchen-table framing Governor Spanberger is using around both the redistricting referendum and the budget standoff.

This story is the connective tissue between the April 23 budget fight, the Fluvanna gas plant approval, and the Loudoun noise complaints. If the SCC's April 1 hearing on Dominion's data center rate rider results in rejection, it forces grid upgrades sooner and could shift $200 million or more in costs between ratepayer classes. If it's approved, residential customers absorb more of the buildout — and the political pressure on the data center tax exemption intensifies further.

George Washington University's sale of its 122-acre Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn to Amazon Data Services drew a pointed column in the student newspaper today arguing the deal undermines GW's own sustainability commitments. Separately, Loudoun Now reports that GW's faculty senate is set to vote this week on the future of programs at the Ashburn campus — a decision affecting research continuity and staffing.

For Loudoun residents, the sale crystallizes the data center growth debate into a single transaction: 122 acres of university campus converted to industrial data infrastructure, with opponents highlighting water use (up to five million gallons per day for cooling) and grid strain. Some reporting suggests the sale locks in about 500 high-wage jobs short-term but raises long-term questions about the local talent pipeline if the campus shifts fully to server farms.

Loudoun supervisors vote Thursday (March 26, 2026) on Amazon's rezoning application. Approval signals a significant increase in local power draw and triggers NOVEC planning updates. Rejection — or conditions that limit conversion — could chill future big-ticket acquisitions and feed directly into the state-level tax exemption debate. Either way, GW's decision to cash in puts a university squarely in the middle of Virginia's biggest land-use battle.

A university selling 122 acres of campus to a server farm, a county approving a gas plant over 200 objections so data centers can keep their lights on, and a city asking residents to pay $14 more a month while winning a national award for hiding public records.

Virginia in 2026: where the boom you heard Friday night was just weather, but the one you'll hear April 23 definitely isn't.

See you tomorrow. —The Lyceum

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