The United States federal government should enact a moratorium on hyperscale data center construction.

Non-unique - Other data centers still support broadband needs.

Shannon Heckt 25. Covers environment and energy issues for the Virginia Mercury, 6-20-25, "Virginia doesn’t have statewide data center regulations. Localities are making their own rules. • Virginia Mercury", Virginia Mercury, https://virginiamercury.com/2025/06/20/virginia-doesnt-have-statewide-data-center-regulations-localities-are-making-their-own-rules-instead/

Virginia is home to over a third of the data centers worldwide. These energy hungry facilities have brought business to the commonwealth, but communities are seeing the impact of the electricity and water usage hit their utility bills. Now, many localities are debating how to balance the opportunities and challenges data centers present, and grappling with how to regulate them.

Turn - Data centers raise utility bills for communities.

Shannon Heckt 25. Covers environment and energy issues for the Virginia Mercury, 6-20-25, "Virginia doesn’t have statewide data center regulations. Localities are making their own rules. • Virginia Mercury", Virginia Mercury, https://virginiamercury.com/2025/06/20/virginia-doesnt-have-statewide-data-center-regulations-localities-are-making-their-own-rules-instead/

Virginia is home to over a third of the data centers worldwide. These energy hungry facilities have brought business to the commonwealth, but communities are seeing the impact of the electricity and water usage hit their utility bills. Now, many localities are debating how to balance the opportunities and challenges data centers present, and grappling with how to regulate them.

Mitigates - Job impact is localized and creates utility burden.

Shannon Heckt 25. Covers environment and energy issues for the Virginia Mercury, 6-20-25, "Virginia doesn’t have statewide data center regulations. Localities are making their own rules. • Virginia Mercury", Virginia Mercury, https://virginiamercury.com/2025/06/20/virginia-doesnt-have-statewide-data-center-regulations-localities-are-making-their-own-rules-instead/

Virginia is home to over a third of the data centers worldwide. These energy hungry facilities have brought business to the commonwealth, but communities are seeing the impact of the electricity and water usage hit their utility bills. Now, many localities are debating how to balance the opportunities and challenges data centers present, and grappling with how to regulate them.

Mitigates - AI can provide trustworthy information, counteracting disinformation.

Acton-Boxborough-SiGo-Con-MSDL-State-Round-1

indistinguishable from real ones. But there is also a positive side. Used smartly, GAI can provide a greater number of content consumers with trustworthy information, thereby counteracting disinformation. To understand the positives and negatives of GAI, it is first important to understand what AI is, and what is so special about generative AI. What do machine learning, AI and generative AI mean? Artificial intelligence refers to a collection of ideas, technologies and techniques that relate to a computer system's capacity to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence. When we talk about AI in the context of journalism, we usually mean machine learning (ML) as a sub field of AI. In basic terms, machine learning is the process of training a piece of software, called a model, to make useful predictions or generate content from data. The roots of machine learning are in statistics, which can also be thought of as the art of extracting knowledge from data.

Mitigates - State strategy empowers localities to bargain for data center benefits.

Dwayne Yancey 25. Founding editor of Cardinal News 7-7-2025, "Spanberger: Open to data center tax breaks, sees inland port as ‘transformational’ and U.S. 220 improvements as ‘vital’", Cardinal News, https://cardinalnews.org/2025/07/07/spanberger-open-to-data-center-tax-breaks-sees-inland-port-as-transformational-and-u-s-220-improvements-as-vital/

Our conversation about economic development began with a related issue: data centers, which have also become a touchy issue in some communities, while others have been eager to secure them. (See Botetourt County, which recently sold 312 acres in its industrial park to Google for a data center complex.) Data centers: State should provide localities with more information Spanberger’s answer on data centers was essentially the same as it was with solar: Whether localities accept or reject data centers is up to them, but they ought to be able to go to the state to get information on what they can bargain for if they wish. “I think the governor’s office should really lead an effort to have a statewide strategy,” Spanberger said. “Not a mandate dictating where they should or should not go, but as I view it more of an on-ramp for localities who want to bring data centers to their communities. Certainly if a data center comes calling, that’s a decision for local communities and local leadership. But some localities really want data centers but don’t know how to raise their hands, but then there are many communities who would consider data centers but don’t know what to ask.”

Democrats' midterm lead is narrowing, making their political capital critical.

One survey from February found that Democrats boasted a seven-point lead over Republicans on the “generic ballot” question, “If the elections for U.S. Congress were being held today, who would you vote for in the district where you live?” Another from May suggested that Democrats’ lead had slipped to five points. But in this latest poll of 1,549 American adults (1,402 of which were registered voters) conducted between June 13 and 15, Republicans trailed Democrats by just three points (39%-36%) among the former, larger group and two points (46%-44%) among the latter, smaller one. Such a result could yield a House of Representatives in which Republicans continue to hold a majority. The YouGov poll isn’t the only foreboding one for Democrats. A Harvard-HarrisX poll of 2,745 registered voters conducted in April found that 50% of those surveyed indicated they’d vote for their local Democrat, while the other 50% said they bled red. Democrats boasted a 52%-48% advantage with independents.