First – Some fun news.
The Coalition to Protect Prince Willilam County, along with friends and neighbors from the community, will once again be marching in the Haymarket Day Parade reminding everyone why protecting the Rural Crescent is so important!
HAYMARKET DAY
NEXT SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21
Parade: 10-11 AM
Booth: 11-4 PM
Get ready for a big tractor, goats, chickens, bunnies, dogs, and adorable goblins!
Come out and support what makes Prince William County so special in a region that is under threat from residential and data center sprawl! Our booth will have information on upcoming opportunities for citizens to make a difference! And of course, the petting zoo!
Now – the not-so-fun news.
Please mark your calendars for November 8th, for the Planning Commission meeting to hear all THREE rezoning applications for the Digital Gateway.
It is unfortunate the county website does not allow for clipping directly from the Planning Commission video of October 11, but in a nutshell:
Commissioners from the East, who clearly do not believe that the impacts of the largest data center campus proposal in the world will affect them, are pushing to just put a checkmark in a box. They want to be done with industrializing the Rural Crescent — by razing homes, by building industrial blight NEXT to homes, by threatening the integrity of a National and State Park, and by ignoring the warnings from Fairfax Water Authority that developing at this intensity in a drinking water supply watershed could have disastrous consequences.
Here is the link to their interchange. Watch time stamps 42:19 – 47:42, AND 59:04 – 1:03:24
Planning Commission 10/11/2023 (granicus.com)
Please send our easy click to send email, reminding the Planning Commission that expediency is not the way to ensure good policy. There can no longer be a claim of unintended consequences, because this community has been shining a bright light on critical questions that to-date have not been answered.
Barreling ahead with ANOTHER Data Center Alley in Prince William County is foolhardy, considering that Dominion Energy has been very honest, for once, that they cannot keep up with what local leaders are approving; and unless and until, the state provides some kind of oversight, we are headed straight for the proverbial cliff.
What are the impacts of bringing power to all these data centers? Impacts not only to Prince William residents countywide – but impacts to residents across the entire state? These are not minor questions. It is obvious that the shiny promise of untold riches is not so shiny.
When will the Planning Commission or Board of Supervisors ask these critical questions? What role does the Digitial Gateway play in the looming power crisis?
Dominion: Virginia’s Data Center Cluster Could Double in Size | Data Center Frontier
“…Anyone familiar with data centers will immediately recognize the magnitude of these contracts, as well as the infrastructure needed to make them a reality.”
“To support data centers’ appetite for power, Dominion has begun planning major upgrades to its transmission and substation infrastructure, submitting dozens of project proposals to the PJM Interconnection, which coordinates utility growth along the East Coast.”
“The Coalition to Protect Prince William County describes the PJM proposals as “cataclysmic and mind-boggling, bringing (new power lines) through and across the Eastern/MidAtlantic region, into our neighborhoods.””
“The Coalition has shared a detailed analysis of the planned power line expansion on its web site. The group has sharpened its focus on the consequences of data center expansion on power infrastructure and its impact on quality of life.”
Citizens are warning elected leaders, we are headed for a collision course. It is THEIR decision, on projects like the Digital Gateway, that will cement THEIR legacy years from now. When the history books look back on this time in Virginia, a time of climate change and diminishing natural resources, what road did THEY take us down?
AI Data Centers Are Booming, Sucking up Water, Energy, and Land (businessinsider.com)
“…There is a flipside, however, to their now ubiquitous presence in places like northern Virginia. The facilities consume quantities of power so vast that they have begun to tax entire energy grids and could exacerbate the climate crisis…”
“Based on a review of permits that Insider obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, Amazon operates, or is in the process of building or planning, 102 data centers in northern Virginia. Together, the facilities, when they are all up and running, will have emergency generators capable of producing more than 4.6 gigawatts of power. That’s almost enough backup electrical capacity to light up all of New York City on an average day.”
WE – all of us, every ratepayer in Virginia – will not only experience the rate increases, showing up in electric bills that could double, but the number of new transmission lines will crisscross our neighborhoods like a spider web, taking private property, impacting our natural and cultural resources, and leaving many wondering “How did this happen?”
We will call out the names of those in leadership positions that chose party over people and lies over the truth.
County Leaders Eye Revenue Stabilization Fund for Data Centers | News | loudounnow.com
“In a move intended to further buffer the county government’s finances from an over reliance on tax revenue generated by data centers, Loudoun budget managers want to create a new revenue stabilization fund that could set aside more than $70 million to cover potential shortfalls.”
“With data center revenues comprising half of the local tax base, a blip in the collection projections can have a significant impact on the county coffers.”
“Last year, when the pace of upgrades to data center equipment slowed, the county faced a funding shortfall. This year, the staff took a more conservative approach to forecasting and missed the mark in the other direction…”
Send your message to the Planning Commissioners now!
Add your name to this petition against more data center proliferation.