State Legislation on AI: How a Courageous Governor’s Veto Averted Regulatory Crisis
Artificial intelligence (AI) is progressing rapidly and powering solutions previously unimaginable. At the same time, AI legislation is on the rise and a patchwork of state restrictions looms over the momentum of innovators and US leadership. This Monday, HB 2094, the High-Risk Artificial Intelligence Developer and Deployer Act, was vetoed by Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-VA). HB […]
Outside Study Confirms Natural Gas Needed to Run Data Centers
Yet another analysis of the energy dilemma facing Virginia, this one commissioned by a Democrat-controlled legislative panel, has concluded that the use of natural gas to make electricity is going to have to grow over coming decades, not shrink. Virginia’s anti-hydrocarbon energy laws are doomed to fail because of the data center industry. The new 150-page report takes […]
Killing the Digital Goose for its Golden Egg
The last time the General Assembly made a similar mistake with the Virginia tax code was 20 years ago. It was 2004, and the complaints that business was not “paying its fair share” came from Republicans in the House. They introduced and quickly pushed through a bill that stripped sales tax exemptions from multiple categories of business. Sound familiar? Twenty […]
Virginia Loves Data Centers More Than Chip Makers
Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, in its latest analysis of Virginia’s economic development incentives, reports that efforts to capture and nurture microchip manufacturing with grants and tax breaks led to some early success that failed to hold, and the industry here is in decline. The reason may be Virginia loves data centers more.The […]
Framing Net Neutrality Standards We Can Agree Upon
By now, you’ve probably heard about net neutrality, the principle that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should not favor some online traffic and data over others. It shouldn’t really be a controversial matter because virtually everyone agrees on the basics, and it is fundamentally just common sense—there should be a level playing field online. So, if […]
Building on Virginia’s Data-Center Boom
Data centers are the hottest trend in Virginia economic development these days. But the state is only beginning to think through the implications.
Loudoun County, home to 75 facilities, has developed the largest cluster of data centers in the country (and perhaps the world), and next-door-neighbor Prince William County is rising fast.
Jefferson Journal: Internet Privacy — Careful How We Ask For It
We all want to ensure our privacy is maintained on the Internet. But how we ask for it, and who ensures it can make a difference.
Why We Can’t Live Without Autonomous Vehicles
What if an airliner, loaded with 400 passengers, fell from the sky, killing everyone aboard? What if it happened every year? Every week? Every day? What if it happened every three hours? You’d probably think twice before booking airfare for your next vacation. Yet collectively we think nothing of getting in our cars every day, […]
Jefferson Journal: Time To Move Online Education Forward
Governor Terry McAuliffe earned high praise last year for allowing 21st century enterprises like Lyft and Uber to operate legally in Virginia. He now has a similar opportunity in education.
STEM-Related Jobs Outlook is Bright
Demand for workers with skills in higher paying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, known as the STEM subjects, is expected to continue to outpace demand for non-STEM workers over the next decade, based on a new 10-year projection from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As of the third quarter of 2015, there were 9.2 million […]