RICHMOND, July 7 — On a humid Tuesday morning inside the Virginia State Capitol, Delegate David Bulova’s HB 1234 sits in committee, neither dead nor alive. The bill, introduced in January 2024, would force scrap metal dealers to record the seller’s name, address, and vehicle license plate for any cash transaction over $100. It would also require dealers to hold non-ferrous metals for ten days before resale.
The legislation is a direct response to a surge in copper thefts targeting data centers — the sprawling server farms that power modern life. Virginia is not alone.
At least five states — Arizona, Texas, Ohio, and Georgia, alongside Virginia — have introduced or passed similar measures in 2024. The pattern is unmistakable: statehouses across the country are scrambling to choke off the resale market for stolen copper, a metal that has become the lifeblood of both the digital economy and the criminal underground.
The Arizona Model
Arizona moved fastest. Governor Katie Hobbs signed SB 1456 into law in April 2024, and the measure took effect the following month. The law imposes a $5,000 fine on dealers who fail to verify a seller’s identity.
That penalty is designed to sting — enough to make a recycler think twice before accepting a truckload of unidentifiable copper wiring from a stranger paying in cash. The scene in Phoenix, by all accounts, has shifted.
Dealers now check driver’s licenses with the same scrutiny as a bouncer at a nightclub. But the question hanging over the law is whether it will actually stop the thefts or simply push them to neighboring states with weaker rules.
A National Trend Accelerating
The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that 38 states now have some form of scrap metal theft law on the books. That number stood at just 12 in 2010. The growth has been steady, but the pace has quickened as data center construction has exploded — and as the copper inside those facilities has become a prime target for thieves who can strip a site in hours and sell the metal for cash by nightfall.
On the ground, residents in affected communities describe a cat-and-mouse game. Thieves hit construction sites, utility substations, and even live data centers, ripping out copper grounding wire and bus bars.
The damage often exceeds the value of the stolen metal by a factor of ten or more, because a severed ground wire can fry servers, halt operations, and cost millions in downtime.
The Industry Pushback
The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries opposes the new measures. ISRI argues that the regulations burden legitimate recyclers — the small businesses and family-run yards that have operated for decades without incident. A ten-day holding period, they say, ties up cash flow and warehouse space.
A $5,000 fine for a paperwork error, they warn, could put a mom-and-pop yard out of business. It is a familiar tension.
Law enforcement wants tools to track stolen metal. Recyclers want to move product. And the thieves, for now, are exploiting the gap between the two.
Back in Richmond, Bulova’s bill remains in committee as of June 2024. Virginia’s legislative calendar moves slowly, and the session has been crowded with other priorities.
But the copper thefts have not slowed. Data center operators in Northern Virginia — the world’s largest concentration of server farms — continue to report losses. Whether the General Assembly will act when it reconvenes remains an open question.
What is clear, watching from the press gallery, is that the window for voluntary compliance is closing. Arizona has already drawn a line in the sand. Ohio, Texas, and Georgia are moving.
Virginia, for now, is watching. But the pressure is building — and by the time the next session rolls around, the question may no longer be whether to act, but how far to go.
