Dear Coalition Supporters,
Before we get into the recent updates, we want to congratulate you on the impacts YOU have made by sending letters, speaking up, collecting recall signatures, volunteering at the polls, putting up signs, writing letters to the editor, joining the Coalition at rallies, speaking at citizens time, and more.
(What You Can Do – See details below)
Sept. 7 Town Hall
Oct. 11 Digital Gateway Planning Commission
Nov. 21 Digital Gateway Board of Supervisors
So – let’s take an inventory of those community successes:
1) The Gainesville District, as a result of Pete Candland finally feeling the pressure to resign, now has an amazing and knowledgeable advocate who truly works on behalf of citizens, Supervisor Bob.
2) Ann Wheeler lost her primary bid, despite outraising her opponent, Deshundra Jefferson, by nearly 8 to 1.
3) High turnover from staff in leadership positions in Planning – staff who were definitely influenced by unrelenting questions, and all of us holding the Planning staff accountable by demanding transparency.
4) Exposing Ann Wheeler’s purchase of new stocks AFTER she was elected – which were DIRECTLY tied to QTS.
5) This community has not only changed the conversation here in PWC regarding the impacts of the Digital Gateway project; we have been instrumental in changing the conversation about data center proliferation across the Commonwealth of Virginia and beyond. There are communities reaching out and visiting Prince William — from Frederick, Maryland, and Fayetteville, Georgia, among others — experiencing the same concerns as the residents here in Prince William, wanting to share their experiences with us and learn how to protect their communities!
6) There are many outstanding questions on the Digital Gateway application. In fact, the Planning Staff had a fourth round of questions, but Ann Wheeler, who had previously been under the delusion that she could ramrod the application through in April, has now found herself with her back up against the wall and her reign of power coming to a close on December 31st.
Now onto updates:
If Ann Wheeler is anything, she certainly is boringly predictable. As was expected when the lame duck resolution failed last month, in her typical secretive manner without informing the Gainesville District Supervisor, Ann has put the Digitial Gateway Rezoning application on the books for November…POST the Nov. 7 election and DURING Thanksgiving week.
Yup, you heard that correctly. In hopes of suppressing turnout, in the way this game is played by sneaky politicians and the developers pulling their puppet strings, Ann Wheeler has forced the scheduling of this contentious and important hearing two days before Thanksgiving, Tuesday, November 21st.
“Your cavalier attitude with respect to my lack of notification and your refusal to forward [Wheeler’s] correspondence to my office immediately cannot and will not be tolerated,” he (Weir) said to Shorter in an email on Tuesday. “The residents and taxpayers of the County and particularly those of the Gainesville district demand better and I should not have to go through the County Attorney’s office to secure correspondence that directly impacts the District.”
“He also said Wheeler was out of line for moving to schedule the hearing, a responsibility Weir argued lies with the county planning director. “It is no wonder that I and the public perceive the process as broken and that elected officials have seemingly placed their thumbs heavily on the scale,” Weir said.”
We are in the home stretch on this one. Now is the time to gather your energy and muster your strength. We want you to understand why this fight is so important, because the facts are clear, and the truth has finally been exposed.
WE, all of us, are not benefiting from this kind of unrestrained industrial development. Yes, we all use data, but using data shouldn’t give data centers – or our Board – a pass on understanding the impacts of data center proliferation on our communities. This application, given all the outstanding concerns, deserves a resounding denial. JUST SAY NO!
We are fighting to protect so much more than any one person’s back yard!
Data centers drive search for new power corridors | News | princewilliamtimes.com
“Surging power demand in Northern Virginia, driven by the proliferation of data centers to support the internet, will mean lots more power lines and likely conflicts over who gets them in their backyards.”
“Karen Sheehan, director of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County, identified 15 (corrected) of those projects that in some way affect her county, and at least five others appear to pass through Fauquier. While some of the proposals contain duplicate components, and not all parts will be built, the bids for the Prince William projects alone total $19.5 (corrected) billion. The cost will be borne by all Virginia homes and businesses with electricity bills. ”
“I don’t think that it’s at all fair,” said Sheehan, whose organization opposes the Prince William Digital Gateway and other data center proliferation in western Prince William County. “It’s very clear that the whole reason the grid needs to expand is the data center load.”
(See all 33 maps which have been provided to date – this is just one, representing only SOME of the impacts across our county.)
We are not giving up or giving in, so stay tuned for opportunities where YOU can continue to make a difference. This fight is bigger than any one person, or any one organization. Data Center expansion bleeds into every facet of our lives, whether it is paying for their massive power infrastructure, giving up our property for the transmission lines, or increasing the threats to our clean air and clean water – either directly because the data centers have to rely on their diesel generators to avoid blackouts, or indirectly because the only way to power them is more fossil fuel like coal and gas.
Why are ratepayers footing the bill for Virginia’s data center buildout? – Virginia Mercury
Please read the Coalition’s Digitial Gateway submission to the Board of Supervisors.
An educated community, based on facts, has the tools to “fight” back.
From the PJM 2022 annual RTEP (Regional Transmission Expansion Plan) report dated March 14, 2023 (2022-rtep-report.ashx (pjm.com):
Page 44: (emphasis added)
“In the PJM 2022 Load Forecast Report, Dominion requested that PJM consider a forecast adjustment to account for the growth of data centers in northern Virginia. This adjustment has been in place in some form since the 2014 Load Forecast Report. The rationale for making an adjustment for data centers is that these centers have a load impact that is disproportionate with their economic impact. Data centers generally require minimum staffing and thus would not have a significant impact on economic variables, but do have a considerable impact on energy demand.”
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
–> Show Up to the September 7 Town Hall:
–> Speak at the Oct. 11 Planning Commission meeting on the Digital Gateway rezonings.
–> Speak at the Nov. 21 Board of Supervisors vote on the Digital Gateway rezonings.