By Charles Young, WV News
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s bill aimed at making West Virginia the ”single best place in America for data centers to come” is now on his desk, awaiting his signature.
Lawmakers in the West Virginia Legislature completed action on House Bill 20214, the Certified Microgrid Program or the Power Generation and Consumption Act, on Saturday, the final day of this year’s regular session.
The bill, which Morrisey called his “landmark policy proposal,” would change current state code restrictions on microgrids to attract investments from companies planning to construct data centers needed to power artificial intelligence.
“This bill will dramatically increase West Virginia’s ability to play a major role in data economic development projects, improve our standard of living, and help reduce our income tax,” Morrisey said in a statement. “This is the economic development bill of the session, and I applaud the Legislature for acting on it. I hope they will continue to support my efforts to cut red tape, grow economically, and win our economic Backyard Brawl against all the states we touch.”
