Dear Supporters,
Never let it be said that this community does not find creative ways to make sure our voices and concerns are heard!
On Sunday, outside of a Democrat Party fundraiser advertised as “Back the Board” with headliners Tim Kaine and Ann Wheeler, a small and dedicated team of citizens, unafraid of a little rain, showed up to ensure this community isn’t buying the propaganda of the Digitial Gateway.
Our elected leaders have no credible answers to the destruction of Hallowed Ground, the impacts to both the Manassas National Battlefield Park and Conway Robinson State Park. Now they need to explain how many transmission lines and substations and how much water will be required for the largest data center concentration in the world. Citizens have grave concerns.
Facebook live. Check out multiple interesting interactions starting at timestamp 46:19!
Sunday was only the beginning of the “fun” for Ann Wheeler!
The Coalition had been planning for several weeks to also attend a BisNow conference this past Wednesday at Sweeney’s Barn, seizing an opportunity to explain why data center sprawl is NOT a NIMBY issue. The threat to reliable power includes everyone. The powerline infrastructure not only re-imagines existing transmission line routes, but includes many more devastations of untouched greenspaces throughout Virginia AND even beyond our state lines. It isn’t just the “highway” of powerlines that the data centers require, but also the new power generation to feed the insatiable power appetite of the data center industry.
During her opening remarks for the event, in classic Ann Wheeler style with a nasty glare at citizens, she had the audacity to prattle on about not stopping progress. It certainly isn’t progress to turn the clock back 50 years on environmental progress by returning to the days of diesel fuel, coal, and gas for power, and industrializing drinking water watershed supply.
Needless to say, we relished making our T-shirt statements and witnessing the rest of them dance around any mention of data centers, while trying to propagandize about how wonderful things are in Prince William County. The development community definitely made it clear during their last hour presentation that the 170-case backlog in the Planning Office is delaying their retail and residential projects from progressing — all caused by the exodus of Planning Staff and Ann Wheeler’s single-minded focus on ensuring her planned trajectory for industrializing the Western end of the county.
Talking to attendees at the event — once they learned about all the transmission lines that would be needed to support the CURRENT data center buildout, realizing they could be the target of the route, AND that they would have to pay for it — suddenly, data center sprawl impacts became real for them!
We have a newsflash for one-time Chair Ann Wheeler and her fellow supervisors following her off this unsustainability cliff: There is no progress by offering up our reliable power grid for one industry, while at the same time demanding citizens fund the power extension cords for the wealthiest corporations in the world.
We call that corporate welfare.
You too can make a difference by joining together, showing up, and increasing citizen presence and impact. Watch our alerts for upcoming events.
Here is one on Monday:
Community meeting related to the NTT Global Data Center VA10 SUP application for a substation on the previously approved project in Prince William County. Our plan is to provide an update on the SUP application process before the Prince William County Planning Commission.
Representatives from NTT Global Data Centers will be in attendance to speak about the substation application.
The meeting will be held:
Monday – October 2, 2023
6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Hampton Inn Gainesville-Haymarket
7300 Atlas Walk Way
Gainesville, VA
(Below is the proposed transmission line route for the data center substation required by the NTT Global Data Center SUP application – Hope to see you there!)
Battle Lines · National Parks Conservation Association (npca.org)
Read about the grid expansions required because of data centers already in operation in Northern Virginia. It’s very clear – STOP any more data center approvals!