Lawmakers Ask Amazon Owner to Reconsider Data Center Location

HAYMARKET, VA—Two state lawmakers have requested Amazon Inc. founder Jeff Bezos reconsider his proposed data center here due to resident concerns over increased power supply that would be brought to the area in connection with the project.

Lawmakers Bob Marshall and Richard Black, who represent parts of Loudoun and Prince William counties in the Virginia house and senate, respectively, co-signed a Jan. 5 letter to Bezos asking him to consider the "adverse impact" bringing power to the nearly 500,000-square-foot data center would have on the surrounding area, according to the Washington Business Journal. Residents and businesses in the area have complained about plans by Dominion Virginia Power to bring high-voltage power lines to the site off John Marshall Highway in Prince William County.

"We appreciate that you must make a business decision that rewards Amazon stockholders," the lawmakers wrote Bezos,. "We hope you will see that forcing construction of massive 230 KV power transmission lines through neighborhoods in order to serve your data center is not good business, because of the negative impact on so many residents, organizations and business interests."

Marshall and Black, in their letter to Bezos, raise two alternatives to minimize the impact of the project. One would be to move the project to a new site at Innovation Park in Manassas. The other would involve burying power lines underground to the Haymarket data center project site. See story in the Washington Business Journal.