Dear Coalition friends and supporters,
The question every reader should be asking themselves right now is, “When will it be ME? Fighting a data center energy infrastructure project threatening MY home, MY property, MY future.”
The solution for ONE industry’s power need for THEIR stock portfolio is NOT to take OUR land against OUR permission, but instead, for OUR COUNTY to SAY NO to the data center unconstrained build-out.
The Nokesville Transmission line application is merely a symptom of this rot, and too many of our elected leaders, at every level of government, are failing us. It’s time to step up, regardless of party, and STAND for the people they represent.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
–> Press Conference hosted by CABSA, Thursday, July 23 – Patriot High School – 5:30 PM
We appreciate the recent resolution by our Board of Supervisors. We are thrilled certain routes have been removed (for now):
Nokesville Blue and Light Blue transmission line resolution 071426
But that has left other Prince William residents VERY vulnerable!
We call for a follow-up resolution that more closely mirrors the Haymarket Transmission Line resolution. A resolution calling for a buried route only, and that commits to providing public testimony on harm to the long-range land use objectives if above ground routes are approved.
This is the 2016 Board Resolution for the Haymarket Transmission line:
Final Resolution approved by the BOCS – April 12, 2016 – The Coalition to Protect Prince William County
WE – the citizens, the residents, the homeowners, THE VOTERS – reject this madness.
WE – the citizens, the residents, the homeowners, THE VOTERS – reject this takeover of our private property, our pocketbooks, and our power grid.
Coalition members have volunteered thousands of hours to expose this impending crisis. We have been warning for years, and now there is no more time to waste. The data center build-out can be likened to an extreme addiction, always chasing the ever elusive next high that WILL NEVER materialize. But much harm is done in that chase.
Power crunch keeps data centers in the dark | Localnews | princewilliamtimes.com
This Coalition cartoon is from 2024.
We have been warning about the Nokesville Transmission line threat and others since early 2024:
WE will continue to shout from the mountaintop: The solution is NOT trying to meet this unsustainable growth. IT IS TO SAY NO!
The solution IS TO FORCE every single “extension cord” scarring our cherished landscape to be buried, while handing the bill to the data center industry.
The Coalition not only advocated this position for the Haymarket transmission line that was ultimately buried through residential communities and small businesses, but WE proposed a novel approach to “make them pay” during the State Corporate Commission hearing in 2016. We proposed utilizing the existing “line extension policy.” It was such a powerful argument, the SCC legal staff agreed and recommended this solution to the judge and the Commission.
Coalition-Legal-Brief.pdf
SCC-Staff-Legal-Brief-080516.pdf
“The record developed herein reveals that the Company has already constructed at least two transmission projects to extend service to new data center loads, similar to that requested by the Customer in this application, which have not developed as expected or at all.30 Thus, in viewing these “line extensions” to large contingent loads, the Commission may wish to require the customer requiring such project to put some of its own skin into the game. Otherwise, the general public, already burdened by the environmental and aesthetic impacts of otherwise unneeded transmission projects, is not also burdened with 100% of the otherwise unnecessary costs.”
As we all remember, neither the Judge nor the SCC three-member Commission ruled in our favor. Eventually Dominion Energy did come to the table with a Settlement Agreement to bury, but we had to agree to drop any further court action which would have included the line extension policy.
FAST forward a decade, and guess what??? That line extension policy is baaaaaack! A special shout out to the Piedmont Environmental Council for participating in the current rate case before the SCC on assigning infrastructure costs to the Data Center Industry.
Making the data center industry pay for their energy infrastructure has now shockingly gained the support of Governor Spanberger, who refuses to support removing the data center state tax subsidy that has only become a financial burden on ALL Virginia residents.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, through a filing submitted by her newly appointed chief energy officer, is urging regulators at the State Corporation Commission to assign costs of transmission projects driven by data center needs to those facilities.
How is this relevant to the Nokesville Transmission line? Because we believe that a buried route is feasible. And, with the likelihood of a new rate structure which includes transmission lines – applied specifically to high-end energy users (ie. data centers) – the cost of burial will not be an obstacle for this route.
Coalition volunteers have invested thousands of hours in the last several years, including attending Dominion Energy’s PWEEG (Prince William Energy Engagement Group). For nearly three years, we sat through meeting after meeting, trying to understand the intentions of Dominion Energy. We sifted through the obfuscation and games they play, bringing the community the most up-to-date information, gleaning nuggets of the truth about the lack of power and Dominion’s lack of a plan to meet the data center industry load demand.
This Nokesville “Extension” cord is to serve the Needs of Data Centers at Innovation in Prince William. How does the Coalition know this? Because of statements by Dominion Energy in those PWEEG meetings. We ALSO know a buried option was advocated, and yet, here we are, only two options, no buried included.
–> Please attend the press conference Patriot High School, Thursday evening, 5:30 pm, June 23rd, with special guests.
How many of our neighbors will have their homes and property destroyed? How many small businesses and remaining working farms will be lost to this infrastructure build-out to feed the private equity of one industry?
This power line threat has energized a new demographic, OUR FARMERS! They will be making this press conference the first-ever of its kind.
Don’t miss out, stand with your neighbors. Help usher in accountability and real change.
Stay tuned, more details to come.
–> Press Conference hosted by CABSA, Thursday, July 23 – Patriot High School – 5:30 PM
CABSA – Search Results | Facebook
Nokesville-Bristow | Dominion Energy
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–> NOTE: We have NEW yard signs: NO MORE DATA CENTERS! As well as many other different yard signs advocating to protect our communities. Order one today, and start spreading the word to your neighbors!
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