West Virginia sells its dark skies to Fundamental Data LLC

By Imani Sutton · Reporting from Atlanta · October 31, 2026

Governor Patrick Morrisey and House Speaker Roger Hanshaw stripped local zoning to let Fundamental Data LLC build a massive AI hub, trading public health for corporate promises.

The "frictionless" future of artificial intelligence is a lie. It is not a cloud; it is a series of massive, heat-belching warehouses that eat electricity and water. In Tucker County, West Virginia, that future looks like a 785-megawatt power plant. Fundamental Data LLC wants to build the Ridgeline project on a reclaimed coal site. They are not just building a data center. They are building an industrial sacrifice zone. The state government has already cleared the path by stripping local residents of their right to say no.

The extraction playbook returns to the hollows

Fundamental Data LLC says the project starts at 291 acres. Casey Chapman, the company's "responsible individual," admits it could expand to 10,000 acres. This is the old Appalachian extraction playbook with a new logo. For a century, outside barons stripped the mountains of red spruce and coal. They left behind acidic water and ghost towns. Now, the commodity is not coal, but the quiet and the dark.

The physical cost is staggering. The plant will rely on natural gas and store 30 million gallons of diesel. This fuel sits right on a creek that feeds local water supplies. An analysis by the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club found the project could increase sky glow near Blackwater Falls by 528%. Ridgeline is an industrial plant that runs around the clock.

The human cost is worse. Opponents commissioned an analysis on the plant. It showed between $19 million and $35 million a year in health damages and premature deaths. This is the 2020s Data Center Water Crisis in Arizona playing out in the mountains. The promise of a frictionless, AI-driven future is built on consuming critical local resources like water and electricity. The companies avoid reporting this.

Legal erasure and the Speaker's bill

The state government did not just approve the project; they deleted the guardrails. Governor Patrick Morrisey signed House Bill 2014. This law exempts "high-impact data centers" from local zoning and noise or lighting restrictions. It effectively tells the people of Tucker County that their viewshed and their health do not matter.

The conflict of interest is a feature, not a bug. House Speaker Roger Hanshaw is a partner at the law firm Bowles Rice. That firm is the lead counsel for Fundamental Data LLC in its permit disputes. Hanshaw writes the laws that strip local control while his firm bills the company that benefits from that erasure.

This is a pattern. As reported by NPR, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection approved the air-quality permit despite local outcry. The legal system is being used to shield corporate infrastructure from the people living next to it.

The job myth and the grid load

Fundamental Data LLC promises 500 permanent jobs. This is a classic sales pitch. A Brookings Institution study found that data centers actually produce an average of 100 to 200 permanent jobs. The rest are temporary construction roles that vanish once the concrete dries.

The real story is the load. According to WV MetroNews, data centers are popping up across the state. FirstEnergy reports a massive pipeline of 4,260 MW of data center demand in West Virginia. This is not just about one site. Companies like Digi Power X and Range Impact are eyeing the land. Range Impact even formed a joint venture to develop the Fola mine site under nominal lease terms.

The state argues this is "economic development." John Deskins of the WVU Bureau of Business and Economic Research says these are "good opportunities" if pollution is managed. But the "opportunity" is a one-way street. The corporations get the land and the power. The residents get the diesel leaks and the light pollution.

Fundamental Data LLC and its imitators will use House Bill 2014 to bypass every local ordinance in the book. FirstEnergy will then file rate cases to pass the billions in grid upgrade costs onto residential customers. The people of West Virginia will pay the monthly bill to power a server farm they never wanted. To stop this, they must strike down House Bill 2014 in the state Supreme Court. Restore the power of the zoning board.

West Virginia sells its dark skies to Fundamental Data LLC

The extraction playbook returns to the hollows

Legal erasure and the Speaker's bill

The job myth and the grid load

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