Orange County officials signed NDAs with Amazon; court hearing deferred
Energy Matters
PEC works toward energy solutions that emphasize efficiency first, use appropriate technologies for the 21st Century and respect the scenic and historic character of the Piedmont.
Piedmont Environmental Council sues Orange County for VFOIA violations
In the interest of good governance and transparency, The Piedmont Environmental Council filed a lawsuit yesterday against Orange County for improperly denying public access to documents pertaining to a local rezoning application, in violation of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. The lawsuit comes after Orange County officials were unresponsive to PEC’s petition for a Writ of Mandamus, served on Oct. 26, which gave county officials a number of days to correct their VFOIA deficiencies. The lawsuit reflects PEC’s growing concern about the dramatic loss of public access to information about land use decisions in Orange County and across the Commonwealth.
Transmission line update and community meeting invite
In September, I wrote to you about the explosive growth of Virginia’s data center industry and one of the side effects: a major push for new transmission lines.
Putting the Pieces Together on Digital Gateway
Since 2021, PEC has been supporting our partners’ heroic efforts to stop the largest data center campus in the world from being built on rural land next to Manassas National Battlefield Park, along Pageland Lane in Prince William County, Virginia.
The proposal, dubbed “Digital Gateway,” is massive and is projected to require around 3 gigawatts (GW) of energy. For context, that’s equivalent to the power used by 750,000 homes – roughly 5 times the number of households currently in Prince William County!
PEC Presentation on Planning for the Digital Age
In August, PEC’s Director of Land Use Julie Bolthouse presented “Planning for the Digital Age” to the Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association.
PEC Presentation on Energy Infrastructure and Data Centers (Upperville)
On Oct. 23, The Piedmont Environmental Council hosted a community meeting in Upperville, Va. on data centers and associated energy infrastructure.
Latest on Amazon’s data center in Warrenton
Since we last updated you on Amazon’s Warrenton data center, Amazon has spent these couple of months responding to the Town’s first round of comments on its initial site development plan.
2024 General Assembly: Building Bipartisan Support for Conservation
Updates on the conversations taking place in Richmond and a few of the ways PEC is working to support conservation efforts statewide.
Data Centers, Surging Power Demand Take Center Stage
The size, scale, and speed at which applications for data center projects are coming in and being approved is astounding.
Just this month, massive proposals moved forward in Culpeper, Louisa, and King George counties, with more being reviewed in Caroline and Stafford counties. Prince William, Loudoun, Fairfax, and Fauquier counties all have multiple active proposals for hyperscale data centers, which can demand hundreds of megawatts of power per campus. As an example, the data center campus just approved in King George County could total more than 1,200 MW alone.
On The Ground Updates – September 2023
A series of short updates from around the PEC region.