Charleston Council Proposes Rules for Data Centers Under 90 Megawatts as State Law Limits Local Power
Updated
Updated · Mountain State Spotlight · Oct 28
Charleston Council Proposes Rules for Data Centers Under 90 Megawatts as State Law Limits Local Power
3 articles · Updated · Mountain State Spotlight · Oct 28
Summary
Charleston City Council is advancing an ordinance that would force smaller data centers to win council approval and meet setback, water, grid, emergency-response and decommissioning requirements.
The proposal targets facilities below West Virginia’s 90-megawatt “high-impact” threshold, a gap Council member Emmett Pepper says could otherwise let an 89-megawatt site operate with little local oversight.
That local push follows House Bill 2014, signed in April 2025, which shifted authority over large data centers to the state and left counties and towns largely limited to nonbinding resolutions.
Putnam County commissioners adopted one such resolution after Google announced a Buffalo project, while activists there and elsewhere say state-backed developments are still moving ahead with communities sidelined.
Opposition has widened as projects bring visible impacts, including a proposed 1-mile, 100-foot-wide gas pipeline tied to Nscale’s Monarch campus and Wheeling’s separate draft rules after a 10-megawatt data center plan.