State Sen. L. Louise Lucas, Democrat, will be joined by area lawmakers, including Sen. Danica Roem, Democrat, of Prince William County, for a data center listening tour stop near Manassas on Monday evening.
The event, originally scheduled at a hotel in Gainesville, has been relocated to the Best Western Battlefield Inn in Manassas. It remains set for 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday, June 15. Organizers have also confirmed State Senator Kannan Srinivasan, Democrat, Loudoun, will participate.
“They put this out there, and they were wrong,” State Sen. Danica Roem (D-Prince William) told Virginia Mercury after Democrats swept Virginia’s executive branch and made gains in the House of Delegates. “The Republican Governors Association wasted millions of dollars it poured into Virginia’s races this year.”
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MANASSAS, Va. – As Prince William supervisors prepare for a September 9 vote on whether to appeal the voiding of the Prince William Digital Gateway, voices on both sides of the political aisle are urging them to let the ruling stand.
State Senator Danica Roem (D–Prince William County, Manassas) said in a statement that the board should “cut its losses” and stop spending tax dollars on a case already rejected twice in court. She noted Judge Kimberly Irving’s remark that she did not expect the county’s appeal to succeed, and called attention to the vacant Gainesville District seat. “The people of Gainesville District once again do not have full and equal representation compared to the other magisterial district residents on what amounts to a hugely consequential matter,” Roem said.
(The Center Square) — The use of a male pronoun interrupted the Virginia Senate’s proceedings on Monday.
The state’s first senator to openly identify as transgender, Sen. Danica Roem, D-Prince William, addressed Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, who presides over the chamber, with some questions. Sears seemingly offhandedly referred to Roem as “sir” in her second response to the senator.
Roem has focused on legislation related to data centers, emphasizing the need for stringent approval processes. One of her proposed bills states that any local government land use application required for the siting of a data center must adhere to specific notice and noise abatement provisions. These provisions include notifying residents within a half-mile radius, scheduling and attending neighborhood meetings, and conducting sound studies to determine baseline and post-construction noise levels.
“I’m isolating at home in Manassas (albeit with my kitties, so not entirely alone). I plan to participate in committee and floor session remotely Monday,” Roem posted to X, formerly Twitter. “If I test negative Tuesday, I’ll mask up and return.”
“As data centers continue to proliferate across Virginia, the General Assembly this winter is poised to take up a host of bills intended to address their impacts, including increased electricity costs and environmental pressures,” reports Charlie Paullin at The Virginia Mercury. “Virginia is home to the greatest concentration of data centers in the world. While the centers can be found around the state, most are in Northern Virginia, which has more than 300. Eastern Loudoun County, where the facilities cover roughly 573 acres, is known as Data Center Alley, and Prince William is increasingly becoming a hot spot after local officials recently approved a campus of 27 centers that would sit on 270 acres.”
