Retail Sales and Use Tax; exemption for data centers, reports.
Summary
Retail sales and use tax; exemption for data centers; reports. Requires a data center operator, in order to be eligible for the existing data center sales and use tax exemption to (i) beginning July 1, 2030, purchase a certain percentage of the data center's annual electric load from clean energy resources, (ii) beginning July 1, 2030, demonstrate sufficient investment in energy efficiency measures to provide system-wide benefits, and (iii) beginning July 1, 2027, use only backup generators that meet certain emissions standards. The bill requires the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation to examine the cost and feasibility of data centers using onsite backup and primary generation that is not diesel-fired and report its findings and recommendations to the General Assembly no later than December 1, 2025. The bill requires the Department of Energy to (a) identify opportunities for beneficial use of waste heat from data centers; (b) create and publish on its website an interactive map of existing and proposed data centers and potential public and private heat users; (c) develop a strategic plan to accelerate data center heat reuse in the Commonwealth; (d) designate an employee within the Department to lead the Commonwealth's efforts to reuse data center heat; and (e) convene a stakeholder work group to provide expertise and feedback on the Department's efforts to accelerate the use of waste heat from data centers. The Department is required to report its findings to the General Assembly no later than December 1, 2025. Finally, the bill requires investor-owned electric utilities to file with the State Corporation Commission for approval of a voluntary tariff to facilitate large customer procurement of clean energy.
Bill status
in committee
1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2025
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 12, 2025
Last action Feb 5, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison
What changed between versions
Introduced
→
Labor and Commerce Subcommittee Substitute
·
1 edit
MINOR
The bill was amended from its original introduction to a substitute version prepared by the Labor and Commerce Subcommittee. The substantive policy content regarding data center tax exemptions, reporting requirements, and clean energy standards remains unchanged, though the formatting has been updated to reflect the subcommittee's markup. No new provisions were added or removed in the policy text.
TECHNICAL
Formatting and layout were updated to reflect the subcommittee substitute version, including page numbering and header information, but the actual legislative text and policy provisions remain identical to the original introduced version.
Floor votes
How they voted
No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
6
Key actions
1
Committee
3
Jan 30, 2025
Lower · Passed
Subcommittee recommends laying on the table (4-Y 1-N)
lower
Jan 29, 2025
Committee
Assigned L & C sub: Subcommittee #4
lower
Jan 12, 2025
Committee
Referred to Committee on Labor and Commerce
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors
Sponsors
Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Rip Sullivan
DDemocratic
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