Charleston, W.Va. — Fundamental Data, LLC, a company based in Purcellville, VA, has retained the Speaker of the West Virginia House of Delegates as chief counsel in their legal battle with local citizens over an air quality permit for a power plant and data center complex in Tucker County, West Virginia.
Tucker United, Sierra Club, and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy filed an appeal to the WV Intermediate Court of Appeals and the West Virginia Supreme Court disputing the Feb. 5, 2026 decision by the West Virginia Air Quality Board to approve the proposed facility’s air quality permit despite expert testimony challenging the accuracy of projected air pollution impacts. Speaker Hanshaw, who is employed by the Charleston-based firm Bowles Rice LLP that specializes in oil and gas litigation, will defend Fundamental Data against the citizens groups (see attached notice).
“Delegate Hanshaw representing Fundamental Data is a blatant conflict of interest,” said Nikki Forrester, spokesperson for Tucker United. “It’s crystal clear that Hanshaw values out-of-state developers over his own constituents.”
During the 2025 legislative session, Hanshaw led the fight for Governor Morrisey’s controversial bill, HB 2014, which took away the right of communities to give input into data center developments and diverted 70 percent of data center tax revenue to Charleston. In the 2026 legislative session, Hanshaw advanced and helped pass HB4983, certification rules for microgrids and data centers that keeps critical information, such as water usage, hidden from the public. As a result of these two bills, West Virginians have very little information about data center proposals and virtually no say in their development or operation.
HB2014 and HB4983 directly contrast previous statements from Hanshaw about empowering local communities when it comes to economic development. Speaker Hanshaw said it best himself during an interview with MetroNews: “We know that the way we best advance West Virginia is by empowering local people in local communities to make decisions about their own economic future.”
“Speaker Hanshaw raises the very issue we are concerned with, let local communities decide, but HB2014 took that away from us. We live here and we want smart economic development—that means the right place, right process and right profit sharing,” said Amy Margolies, Executive Director of Tucker United.
This is not the first time that Speaker Hanshaw has been called out for conflicts of interest. He was also a consultant on the air permit for Clean-Seas WV, a controversial plastics recycling facility in Belle, WV.
As Speaker of the House, Hanshaw controls when and how legislation is moved through the House. He controls committee assignments and decides whether bills will move forward or be terminated. Hanshaw also controls the way legislation is debated on the House floor and how amendments are handled. During the recent session, numerous bills relating to data centers were introduced that aimed to reinstate local control, change tax allocations to counties, and bring forth more transparency about water usage and the local impacts of data center proposals. Yet none of these bills ever made it through committee:
• HB4683 (R-Anders) and HB4832 (D-Hansen) – addressing water issues associated with data centers
• HB4509 (D-Hansen) – restoring local control in data center proposals
• HB4854 (R-Dillon) – prohibiting tax subsidies for data centers
• HB4948 (R-Dillon) – creating data center buffer zones
In contrast, HB4983, which makes the provisions of HB2014 permanent, was quickly brought through the committee process and floor voting. Common sense amendments to the bill around local control and water-use transparency were swiftly defeated under Speaker Hanshaw’s leadership.
On Nov. 5, 2025, Speaker Hanshaw attended the first day of hearings at the Air Quality Board appeal in Charleston.
“I approached him afterwards and thanked him for hearing our concerns about this massive power plant,” said Luanne McGovern, a board member of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. “He replied that he was “just seeing what this was all about.” It’s clear now that he was laying the groundwork to represent out-of-state developers over every day West Virginians.”
“Ordinary West Virginians don’t get to write the rules and then benefit directly from them. Public officials are entrusted to serve the people of West Virginia, and that responsibility calls for decisions that are fair, transparent, and in the broader public interest,” said Margolies.
