At the federal level, the Trump administration announced<\/a> on Tuesday awards of up to $200 million each to Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI, \u201cto accelerate Department of Defense (DoD) adoption of advanced AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n Youngkin, speaking at a news conference at Google\u2019s Virginia offices, said he thought almost all of the job opportunities available through the state\u2019s website virginiahasjobs.com<\/a> would have an AI component to them. \u201cWhether that is the marketing challenge, where we\u2019re actually using AI capabilities to customize marketing messaging as quickly as we can,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOr if it\u2019s in a customer service relationship, where all of a sudden a lot of the easy customer service stuff is taken by AI, and the hard stuff comes to the people that know how to be empathetic and to interact with folks who really need help.\u201d<\/p>\n Virginia had been CNBC\u2019s number one state to do business in because of its workforce talent pipeline, but lost that ranking last week with a new scoring system incorporating the impact of federal workforce changes. The state has been at the forefront of the Trump administration\u2019s wholesale federal layoffs, with many government employees living and working in the state. Youngkin has touted the job website with private company job listings as his way to help with what he has called \u201cjob dislocation.\u201d A page on that site is where Google provides access to the certification courses, and offerings with Virginia universities.<\/p>\n Mike Wooten, vice chairman of the State Board of Directors that oversees Virginia\u2019s community college system, supported the idea at the announcement, saying that as AI use and credential programs proliferate, \u201dthe universities, the schools, are not the sole fountain of knowledge anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Lauren Bacon Smith, chief people officer at Enabled Intelligence, said at the announcement her Virginia-based company hires people to create the training data AI relies upon to be accurate, with a focus on employing people who are neurodivergent, including people on the autism spectrum or who have ADHD and can focus with pattern and spatial recognition skills. The company is competing for a Project Maven contract with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency to incorporate AI into defense operations, which would allow her company to expand from 30 employees to 120.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s just that one contract,\u201d Bacon Smith told Inside Climate News. \u201cThere\u2019s other government contracts as well, as we\u2019re looking into expanding into the commercial sector. There\u2019s definitely a significant amount of opportunity for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Bronagh Friel, head of partnerships at Grow with Google, said the company has \u201clong recognized that Virginia is a leading force in this quickly evolving tech economy.\u201d Google \u201chas tried to call Virginia home for over 15 years, with our offices here in Reston and data centers\u201d in Loudoun and Prince William counties, Friel said.<\/p>\n Google made an investment<\/a> in Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which is proposing a nuclear fusion power plant in Virginia to provide reliable, carbon-free electricity with less fuel and waste concerns than traditional or small modular nuclear reactors. But those Google data centers Friel mentioned are among the over 390 million square feet of data centers proposed, built or under construction in the state, according to the Sierra Club\u2019s latest report on \u201cunconstrained\u201d data center development in Virginia raising concerns over environmental harms.\u00a0<\/p>\n In Fairfax County, just outside of the nation\u2019s capital, the report said, 55 percent of the facilities are within 200 feet of homes and 70 percent are within 500 feet of homes. One large data center, the report said, \u201ccan consume 5 million gallons of water per day, enough to supply 50,000 people.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the largest data center companies in Virginia have recently admitted that the impact of AI is undermining their emissions reductions goals, creating a \u2018real risk\u2019 that tech company climate commitments will take a back seat to their AI aspirations,\u201d the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Youngkin, who has been a staunch proponent of data center development in the state, did not make himself available for questions after the announcement. Nicole Overley, commissioner at Virginia Works, the state\u2019s workforce development agency, told Inside Climate News that environmental protections for data centers were \u201cnot my expertise.\u201d A Google spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n This use of AI for workforce development comes after Youngkin announced that Virginia reduced regulations across the board by 25 percent in response to an executive order he issued soon after entering office. On Friday, Youngkin announced the AI effort with the intent to cut 10 percent more.\u00a0<\/p>\n The initial regulation cut, announced at an 84 Lumber warehouse with support from the Home Builders Association of Virginia, came after a months-long process that included discussion of reducing certification requirements for wetland<\/a> delineators. Those professionals identify where swamp grounds are in periods of dampness or drought to avoid building homes where structures become wet and moldy.\u00a0<\/p>\n There were also discussions of reductions to certifications for geologists<\/a> and a consolidation of guidance handbooks and regulations for stormwater protections to reduce harm to drinking water and wildlife habitat sources.<\/p>\n The regulatory reduction started under Andrew Wheeler, who was a former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during President Donald Trump\u2019s first term and almost became Virginia\u2019s secretary of natural and historic resources before legislative Democrats blocked <\/a>his appointment. Youngkin then appointed him to head up the four-person Office of Regulatory Management. Wheeler left the Youngkin administration to join a law and lobbying firm in Washington D.C., but resurfaced for the culmination of Youngkin\u2019s regulation cuts.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re lucky to have a governor here in Virginia that made sure that we were getting the best regulations that made sense, that were cost-effective and did not stifle business and allowed people to grow, work and build their families here in Virginia,\u201d Wheeler said.<\/p>\n Michael Rolband, director of the Department of Environmental Quality, who oversaw the reduction of stormwater regulations, has pushed for greater transparency in permitting and enforcement<\/a> penalties.\u00a0<\/p>\n And while the handbook does include Chesapeake Bay Program include approved<\/a> best management practices to cut off pollution, like planting buffers along streams, t concern exists among some environmentalists over the inclusion of other best management practices. One practice of concern is a regenerative stormwater provision that could be improved, according to researchers <\/a>at North Carolina State University, and involves going into a channel to restore it after the damage is already done.<\/p>\n Though the handbook has been referenced for use in the regulations before, environmentalists also raise a question whether guidance changes in the handbook skirt regulatory processes, and local officials wonder if cutting specificity in the regulations and relying on the handbook is unclear.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI understand the goal of the Handbook is to update the standards and Specifications more frequently, however, the unintended consequence is that this state of perpetual flux will create confusion, uncertainty and ambiguity for the life of the [best management practices], and no permanent, archived documentation of the prior standards,\u201d wrote<\/a> Jerry Stonefield, a land development services staffer with Fairfax County.<\/p>\n In response, Rolband told Inside Climate News the consolidation of multiple, decades-old handbooks on stormwater guidance was separate from the effort to reduce regulations that were redundant and came by way of a legislative mandate in 2016. Both efforts, he said, came with stakeholder committees made up of engineers, developers and environmental groups.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a standing committee that meets,\u201d Rolband said of the handbook changes. \u201cIf anyone has comments or issues, basically, it\u2019s online and you just give your comments and thoughts and proposals, and then the committee looks at it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tAbout This Story<\/p>\n Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That\u2019s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can\u2019t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We\u2019ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.<\/p>\n Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.<\/p>\n Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don\u2019t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places? <\/p>\n Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.<\/p>\n Thank you,<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t![\"Bronagh](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_8540-1024x683.jpg\"\/)
Bronagh Friel, head of partnerships at Grow with Google, speaks at the company\u2019s Reston offices. Credit: Charles Paullin\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250715_192441-1024x683.jpg\"\/)
The Google offices building in Reston, Va. Credit: Charles Paullin\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/charles-paullin-300x300.jpg\"\/)
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