The senators and delegates of the 2026 General Assembly and our newly elected governor were hard at work this session alongside the conservation and environmental advocacy community. The Virginia Conservation Network released its annual environmental briefing book, Our Common Agenda, highlighting the biggest issues for environmental policymaking in 2026. You can find links to the white papers of the issues most relevant to Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy’s mission and values here.
The hot-button issue from last year was back in full force this session: potential data center reform legislation was central to many conversations this year, including that of the budget. The key point of contention that prevented a successful conference on the budget by the end of session was the proposal of the removal of the data center tax exemption by the Senate. This exemption has amassed to almost 2 billion dollars handed to big tech and incentivizing already out of control data center development. These are funds that could be dispersed instead to critical programs that better serve Virginian taxpayers and protect the environment. It is for this reason that LWC supports the elimination of this tax credit. A special session will convene April 22 to complete the budget. Stay tuned as we closely monitor the status of the budget.
While many of our priority bills on a variety of topics failed to make it through, a solid amount of good bills have landed on the Governor’s desk for her consideration (action deadline is April 13). Even better: all of our bills of opposition have already been defeated! See these, and all the rest of the bills that we tracked this session, here. Click the link below to see which bills are in consideration by Governor Spanberger to be officially signed into law.
Why Does It Matter? Why do we as a local organization focusing on Loudoun County need to be involved in state-level policymaking? Virginia is a Dillon Rule state – localities cannot carry out policy that is more restrictive than what is expressly permissible by the state code. Practically, this means that if a county wants to put regulations in place to protect the environment in a specific way (say, for example, restricting data centers from being placed in proximity to conservation areas), legislation must first be passed by the General Assembly granting the permission to do so.
Thank you to everyone that engaged with your legislators on the issues you care about—your representatives listened! Even though regular session is over, you can still contact your legislator on the budget ahead of reconvened session—and tell them to support the elimination of the data center tax exemption or other environmental budget items such as a groundwater study for Loudoun and Fauquier (see all budget items we’re supporting in our full list of bill positions). To find your legislator and their contact information, use this Who’s My Legislator tool.
LWC representatives took part in 2 lobby days this year: VCN’s Conservation Lobby Day on February 4th, where environmental organizations from across the state advocated for conservation-friendly policies. Data Center Reform Lobby Day was on February 9th, where we presented our priority bill positions on one of this session’s biggest topics: Data Center Reform.
Be sure to check out VCN’s bill tracker for all the environmental bills and budget items this session. We will be updating our LWC list of bills following the Governor’s action deadline, so please continue to check this page to see what new environmental policies become law in 2026. Reach out to your representatives — remember that your legislators serve you as a constituent! Contact us for more information on how to get involved to protect wildlife at the state level. For questions about our advocacy, contact Conservation Advocacy Coordinator Trinity Mills: tmills@loudounwildlife.org.
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