The Piedmont News is an email digest of top news stories about conservation, land use, energy, and environmental matters of interest to the region. We hope you’ll share The Piedmont News with someone else who cares about these stories.
Bay Journal
(June 11, 2025)
Domesticated honeybees threatened by parasitic mites, disease, pesticide poisoning, encroachment of Africanized honeybees and a phenomenon called colony collapse disorder.
The New York Times
(June 10, 2025)
Anger at PJM, which manages the electrical grid in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia, has been boiling over in some state capitals. Elected leaders said decisions made by PJM are one of the main reasons utility bills have soared in recent years, and that the organization had been slow to add new solar, wind and battery projects that could help lower the cost of electricity.
Dominion Post
(June 7, 2025)
NextEra’s MidAtlantic Resiliency Link transmission project poised to take advantage of West Virginia ratepayers and countryside to power up data centers in Virginia.
WUSA 9
(June 6, 2025)
As summer electric bills arrive with a jolt, a newly released independent report points the finger squarely at the data center industry for the dramatic rise in wholesale power costs—spikes that are now hitting consumers in the wallet.
The Daily Progress
(June 11, 2025)
Charlottesville started construction on what will be the city's largest solar installation to date, a 262.9-kilowatt rooftop solar array at the Charlottesville Area Technical Education Center at 1000 Rio Road E.
Culpeper Star-Exponent
(June 10, 2025)
Residential development does not pay for itself, while commercial and agricultural development does, in terms of costs of services to the county.
Fauquier Times
(June 10, 2025)
Fauquier County Supervisor Daron Culbertson is seeking to sell land he owns in Fauquier County to a data center developer.
Fauquier Times
(June 10, 2025)
A company called “Gigaland” is proposing what could become one of the largest data center complexes in Northern Virginia on about 200 acres outside Remington.
Loudoun Now
(June 12, 2025)
Board of Supervisors’ committee this week recommended planned Western Loudoun Recreation Center be served by on-site systems.
Loudoun Now
(June 12, 2025)
PJM is seeing demand for electricity grow more rapidly than predicted just a year ago—says projected capacity shortfall over the next five years could double, according to the latest estimates.
Loudoun Now
(June 9, 2025)
Dominion Energy introduces new route alternative for transmission line in eastern Loudoun that will connect new 230 kilovolt and 500 kV lines with new substations at the Golden substation near the intersection of Rt. 28 and the W&OD Trail.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
(June 5, 2025)
Despite concerns over the development of data centers in Loudoun County, a panel of experts assured the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce that efforts to balance community well-being with data expansion are a priority.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
(June 5, 2025)
About 200 people gathered June 4 at Smart’s Mill Middle School for the first public input meeting regarding a bypass project for U.S. 15 at Lucketts that aims to reduce congestion and prevent a forecasted increase in traffic.
Potomac Local News
(June 11, 2025)
Prince William County leaders are facing mounting pressure from residents to address noise generated by data centers.
InsideNoVa
(June 7, 2025)
Once you drive around Prince William and actually see with your own eyes the proliferation of these grand edifices to a stage in an evolving technology, it becomes clear that our county leaders really are playing the long game.
InsideNoVa
(June 6, 2025)
A pre-trial conference in Prince William County Circuit Court this week set the stage for an upcoming four-day trial in a lawsuit challenging the PW Digital Gateway data center project.
The Northern Virginia Daily
(June 7, 2025)
Denver-based Tract Capital is seeking a Comprehensive Plan amendment to build Meadow Brook Technology Park, a proposed data center campus on approximately 650 acres south of Stephens City.
The Crozet Gazette
(June 6, 2025)
Augusta County wants a highway entrance that combines commercial development to the Shenandoah Valley; conservationists want to protect wildlife, the water supply, and open space; developers want a crack at a unique and desirable piece of property.
This article quotes PEC’s Senior Field Representative Kim Biasiolli
WHRO
(June 13, 2025)
The Nature Conservancy is halfway through its ambitious 10-year plan to preserve 253,000 acres and boost local economies across three Appalachian states.
Spirit of Jefferson
(June 11, 2025)
A citizen group has been raising an alarm in Jefferson County about two new large-scale power PJM transmission line projects they fear might harm property values and result in home seizures through the state’s eminent domain process.
Data Center Dynamics
(June 10, 2025)
AWS is proposing a third data center campus in the county, housing up to 7.2 million sq ft (668,901 sqm) of data center space on 1,370 acres of land.
The Washington Post
(June 9, 2025)
Blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay have dropped to a “distressing low” number, experts say, marking several years of repeated declines and raising concern about their long-term health.
Bay Journal
(June 5, 2025)
Study at the Patuxent Environmental & Aquatic Research Laboratory (PEARL) found higher levels of microplastic pollution than revealed in previous studies.
Virginia Mercury
(June 11, 2025)
Recent study finds that certain neighborhoods across the state, often with higher populations of people of color, can be up to 15 degrees hotter than other areas.
Clean Virginia BLOG
(June 10, 2025)
Dominion Energy has spent $650,000 backing AG candidate Shannon Taylor in her race against Jay Jones, and is also hedging its bets by supporting Attorney General Jason Miyares, the Republican running for re-election, giving him $300,000 this election cycle.
Times News
(June 9, 2025)
Confusion in energy planning and a lack of industry and government transparency are leaving Southwest Virginia vulnerable to uncontrolled data center growth.
That was the message from Ivy Main during a SWVA Nuclear Watch-hosted Monday town hall meeting on how date centers affect residents and utility customers in the region.
Henrico Citizen
(June 9, 2025)
The Henrico County Board of Supervisors will consider adoption of data center regulations that would require any hyperscale data center proposed in the county to obtain a provisional use permit – a process that requires a public hearing.The move would represent a major shift in the county's approach to data center development following nearly a decade of efforts to attract them.
ABC 8 News
(June 9, 2025)
Recognized for its role in educating the public on the Chesapeake Bay watershed, Varina LandLab Conservation Area is a 353-acre area in eastern Henrico County that provides public access to the outdoors and environmental education opportunities.
Virginia Review
(June 8, 2025)
The Virginia Land Conservation Foundation is now accepting applications for $15.3 million in land conservation grants to help protect agricultural, natural, cultural and historical resources that improve water quality and provide habitat for rare animals and plants. These include priority lands such as working farms and forests, as well as public parks for recreation.
Counter Punch
(June 6, 2025)
The morning quiet is disrupted by the whine of the saw and the din of bulldozers as yet another large swath of older woodland gets decimated. Virginia, a state of great beauty and diversity and a history that is unmatched anywhere in the United States, is currently under attack by a reckless onslaught of data center construction.
Utility Dive
(June 5, 2025)
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission held the first day of a two-day technical conference on resource adequacy issues facing grid operators, with most of the discussion focused on the PJM Interconnection’s capacity market.
Eurasia Review
(June 11, 2025)
As solar energy becomes more affordable and widespread, farmland has emerged as a prime location for large-scale solar development. Do nearby property values suffer when solar farms move in?
Wired
(June 10, 2025)
An AI-related provision in the “Big Beautiful Bill” could restrict state-level legislation of energy-hungry data centers—and is raising bipartisan objections across the US...in Virginia, data centers have already reshaped political battle lines.
Bloomberg
(June 10, 2025)
US data centers are rapidly driving up demand for power, with the official forecast for electricity consumption next year almost doubling in the past month.
Seattle Times
(June 9, 2025)
Private-equity giant Blackstone spent $10 billion in 2021 to acquire QTS, and has been pouring billions more into the company to help it expand its data centers.
Science Daily
(June 7, 2025)
A massive global collaboration has tracked over 12,000 marine animals from whales to turtles to create one of the most detailed movement maps of ocean giants ever assembled.
ABC 8 News
(June 7, 2025)
The massive expansion of Ai infrastructure—especially data centers— is impacting water availability. Prime location for data centers is the same hot dry inland location preferred for feedlots and are often sharing the same aquifers and rivers.
Heatmap
(June 6, 2025)
As the renewable energy industry fights for relief from the House reconciliation bill’s harsh tax credit phaseouts, its members have coalesced around a dire and pragmatic message: America needs electricity, we’re the only ones who can provide it quickly, this bill will make that harder — and it’s electricity consumers who will have to pay the price.
Data Center Dynamics
(June 6, 2025)
GridFree AI, an infrastructure startup backed by Montauk Climate, has raised $5 million in seed funding to streamline and accelerate the production of a modular, grid-independent solution for data centers.
Finance & Commerce
(June 6, 2025)
As Google and Meta try to secure massive amounts of electricity to power new data centers, electric utilities – seeking large profits by providing electricity to these power-hungry facilities – offer discounts not available to average consumers.
GreaterGreaterWashington
(June 6, 2025)
Cool roofs, including those painted with lighter colors, have been shown to increase energy efficiency of buildings by reducing temperatures by up to 50 degrees. But roof manufacturers who produce dark-colored materials have successfully lobbied for a rollback of cool roof laws across the country.
ESG Dive
(June 6, 2025)
A group of 13 House Republicans, led by Virginia Rep. Jen Kiggans, sent a letter to their Senate counterparts Friday asking for further alterations to changes made to the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits saying, "there remains significant room for improvement in preserving the clean energy tax credits.”
S&P Global
(June 5, 2025)
As US companies and utilities work to address the rapidly growing power demand from data centers and Ai, all power generation resources will be needed and collaboration with utilities will be key.
News From The States
(June 5, 2025)
The POWER Act would create a separate customer class for data centers, clearing the way for the Oregon Public Utility Commission to ensure charges for grid expansion and infrastructure needed to power data centers are not passed onto residential and commercial customers.
AlJazeera
(June 6, 2025)
The United Nations’ digital agency says that operational carbon emissions for the world’s top tech companies rose an average of 150 percent between 2020 and 2023 as investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and data centres drove up global electricity demand.
