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.
*The Piedmont News will take a brief hiatus next week, but we will return with all the latest stories on Friday, October 31!
David Vinson |
Changing leaves at Ragged Mountain Reservoir in Albemarle |
Submit a Photo
The Piedmont Journal Recorder
(October 16, 2025)
Greene County At-Large Board of Supervisor and gentleman farmer Francis X. McGuigan, MD, is a firm believer in the Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative (VGBI), now that he’s turned a portion of his 171 acres over to the organization’s financial incentives program. “The results were dramatic,” Dr. McGuigan said, pointing out a flock of at least 30 goldfinches perched atop vegetation enjoying seedheads from the field on a recent check-in with Piedmont Environmental Council’s VGBI Assistant Laura McShane.
This article features the Virginia Grassland Birds Initiative, a collaborative effort of The Piedmont Environmental Council, Smithsonian’s Virginia Working Landscapes, Quail Forever, American Farmland Trust, and Shenandoah Valley Conservancy
The New Energy Crisis
(October 16, 2025)
With wealth to be had, four factions form a juggernaut of power: data centers, utilities, developers, politicians.
This article is the fifth in an eight-part series published in The New Energy Crisis, a project by the Fauquier Times and Prince William Times. Read more in this series at The New Energy Crisis.
NBC News
(October 15, 2025)
Leaders in both parties are locked in competition to encourage tech giants to put sprawling data centers in their states, looking for an economic leg up and an innovation edge in the early days of the artificial intelligence boom. Now, those same leaders are dealing with a downside that’s more apparent by the month: Those electricity-hungry data centers are a major contributor to rising utility bills for cost-conscious residents who have been concerned about rising prices for years.
Loudoun Now
(October 15, 2025)
Gov. Glenn Youngkin will include support to turn President James Monroe’s Loudoun County home into a state park in his final budget proposal as governor... The 1,240-acre property is located near Aldie and has been privately owned by the DeLashmutt family for 70 years. The family has been working with The Conservation Fund, Loudoun County and elected officials to preserve the property in public ownership.
Canary Media
(October 14, 2025)
More than a decade ago, residents of Loudoun County, Virginia, banded together to buy up treasured open space before it became a strip mall and housing development, donating the land to the Piedmont Environmental Council instead. The nonprofit has maintained it as a unique blend of cattle pasture, a nature preserve, and a community farm that donates its yield to a local food pantry. Now, a small corner of the farm has become what organizers say is a first for the state: a crop-based agrivoltaics demonstration project. They hope the combination of solar panels and vegetable farming will showcase how much-needed renewable energy can complement, not harm, agricultural lands, at a time when data centers are demanding more and more electricity.
This article highlights The Piedmont Environmental Council's new, groundbreaking agrivoltaics demonstration project at the Community Farm at Roundabout Meadows.
Piedmont Environmental Council
(October 14, 2025)
The Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative is pleased to announce the opening of its incentives program for landowners and farmers! Now through Nov 30, farmers in the 16 counties across the northern Virginia Piedmont, Blue Ridge, and Shenandoah Valley regions can apply for financial incentives to implement practices that help support nesting grassland birds during the 2026 haying season.
The Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative is a collaborative effort of The Piedmont Environmental Council, Smithsonian’s Virginia Working Landscapes, Quail Forever, American Farmland Trust, and Shenandoah Valley Conservancy.
Semafor
(October 13, 2025)
As electricity bills rise, a growing number of US candidates in both parties are pointing to the high energy costs of data centers — booming thanks to tech companies’ AI investments — as the culprit. While the issue isn’t yet a flashpoint in statewide races, it’s already an overwhelming source of debate in local ones, especially in Virginia.
CleanTechnica
(October 12, 2025)
US farmers are facing the quadruple whammy of tariffs, inflation, worker shortages, and climate impacts, leading to a spike in the number of bankruptcies this year. New developments in agricultural science can’t overcome all of those challenges at once, but a new agrivoltaic project in Virginia aims to demonstrate that the new energy crop of the 21st century — solar energy, that is — can help provide a lifeline to farmers and local communities in these challenging times.
This article highlights The Piedmont Environmental Council's new, groundbreaking agrivoltaics demonstration project at the Community Farm at Roundabout Meadows.
Chesapeake Bay Program
(October 15, 2025)
Substantial progress has been achieved toward meeting the Fish Passage Outcome in the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. During the period of 2022-2023, Chesapeake Bay Program partners opened a total of 303 stream miles to migratory fish. This marks a tenfold increase from the 33 stream miles reported open during the previous assessment period of 2020-2021, surpassing the partnership’s target of restoring 132 miles of historical fish migration routes every two years.
WBUR
(October 15, 2025)
[AUDIO] As data centers upend electric grids, the country's largest transmission operator is facing down a revolt from Northeast state officials. Here & Now's Scott Tong speaks with Grist climate reporting fellow Rebecca Egan McCarthy about what's really behind rising electric bills.
Grist
(October 15, 2025)
On a quiet road in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, not far from the field where George Washington’s starving soldiers waited out the winter in 1778, sits the headquarters for PJM Interconnection, the largest electrical grid operator in the United States. Inside, operators wage war against inclement weather and power surges, ensuring that electricity is reliably delivered to 65 million customers across 13 states and the District of Columbia. The control board looks like something out of a disaster movie — covering the walls and stretching nearly from floor to ceiling — but, by design, it’s a pretty drama-free environment. As the U.S. grapples with a surge in electricity demand, however, that may be changing.
Bay Journal
(October 14, 2025)
Tidal marshes — where crabs and fish feed their way toward adulthood — are the lifeblood of estuarine systems like the Chesapeake Bay. They’re also where a lot of our microplastics end up. A study by Penn State researchers confirms earlier assumptions that tidal marshes are a hotspot not only for ecological life but also for the detritus of what some scientists now call the Earth’s Plasticene era.
Inside Climate News
(October 13, 2025)
As data center growth across the United States is expected to create unprecedented stress on electrical grids, PJM Interconnection, a pivotal grid operator that has come under criticism for delays, is scrambling for ways to keep up.
Inside Climate News
(October 10, 2025)
The ongoing federal shutdown has eclipsed the final stretch of negotiations on an updated agreement to guide restoration of the Chesapeake Bay, leaving partner states to contemplate a less ambitious pact with scaled-back targets and modest cleanup goals.
CVILLE Right Now
(October 16, 2025)
The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed AC44 on Wednesday night. It came after a review process that started in 2021. Several Supervisors thanked staff for the long, hard process of creating the comprehensive plan that will guide the county through changes that include growth, including creating housing and the possibility of swapping out land from developments areas that were no longer being used. Two examples used were about 400 acres of land that is now part of Biscuit Run Park as well as the Village of Rivanna in eastern Albemarle.
This article quotes Piedmont Environmental Council Senior Land Use Field Representative Rob McGinnis.
Information Charlottesville
(October 15, 2025)
The bridge is the last remaining element of a bundle of projects in the area including a roundabout at the intersection of Hydraulic Road and Hillsdale Drive. The idea for the project comes from a small area plan produced in the spring of 2018.
C-VILLE Weekly
(October 15, 2025)
“Everybody around here has a black bear story,” says Beth Kuhn. And Kuhn has likely heard them all. As outreach coordinator for the Rivanna Master Naturalists, the local chapter of the state’s master naturalist program, Kuhn helps deploy a cadre of volunteers to teach Living With Black Bears. Because in Virginia, black bears are our neighbors—and we need to know how to co-exist with them.
C-VILLE Weekly
(October 15, 2025)
On October 8, the Crozet Community Advisory Committee adopted a resolution critical of language in the AC44 document that points the way to how Albemarle’s designated growth area might one day be expanded.
Information Charlottesville
(October 13, 2025)
On October 6, Charlottesville City Council approved leases for two organizations that support local food systems through education and production.
The Daily Progress
(October 13, 2025)
Visitors to Charlottesville and Albemarle County have been wining and dining their way closer to $1 billion in direct visitor spending, according to state tourism figures for 2024.
The Winchester Star
(October 14, 2025)
The buzz in Berryville right now involves an effort to get Clarke County designated a Bee City USA affiliate. Bee City USA is an initiative of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. It encourages communities to protect pollinators — including bees, butterflies and certain other insects — by providing them a healthy habitat, according to its website.
InsideNoVa
(October 15, 2025)
The 28th Annual Culpeper Harvest Days Farm Tour, held Sept. 20-21, welcomed 2,077 attendees to explore the county’s agricultural community, generating an estimated economic impact of $202,262.55. This year’s self-guided tour featured 10 farms and ag-related businesses, offering hands-on demonstrations, workshops and activities for all ages, Culpeper County Economic Development said in a news release.
Culpeper Star-Exponent
(October 11, 2025)
Culpeper is where generations of hard working farmers have used the land sustainably to ensure long-term ecological balance and productivity for future generations. The generations of people who call Culpeper their home take pride in the rich history of our country’s beginnings. The way of life on these historical lands is quietly being threatened.
Fauquier Times
(October 13, 2025)
On Oct. 9, the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors issued a proclamation for the county to officially observe National Farmer’s Day on Oct. 12. The proclamation touted the county’s 145,000 acres of active farmland and the $67 million generated annually in agricultural sales.
Fauquier Times
(October 13, 2025)
The Town of Remington is looking to build a LOVE sculpture designed by a local artist. There are more than 300 of the well-known sculptures across Virginia and eight in Fauquier County, according to a Virginia Tourism Corporation map. The corporation encourages communities across the state to erect LOVE signs, which serve as selfie destinations for tourists.
Fauquier Times
(October 13, 2025)
A company that operates four boutique hotels in the Adirondack and Catskill ranges in New York plans to expand south to the Blue Ridge with a fifth location on Paris Mountain, making Fauquier leaders nervous about their view.
Loudoun Now
(October 16, 2025)
Acting on the request of the Planning Commission, the county staff will hold a public information meeting on plans to add 130 acres to Franklin Park. The meeting will be held Oct. 23 at the Round Hill Elementary School starting at 6:30 p.m.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
(October 15, 2025)
Four developments applied for affordable housing loans from Loudoun County this summer. Only one of them has been recommended for approval.
The Rapidan Register
(October 15, 2025)
An existing provision in Madison County’s Zoning Ordinance requiring a special use permit (SUP) for livestock in residential areas needs more work according to planning commissioners.
Rappahannock News
(October 15, 2025)
The Rappahannock County Recreational Facilities Authority in partnership with the Rappahannock League for Environmental Protection will hold its last dark sky event of the year at the Rappahannock County Park pavilion on Saturday, Oct. 18 at 6:15 p.m. with two short presentations.
Virginia Mercury
(October 15, 2025)
Republican state Del. Ian Lovejoy wants to continue his work in the Virginia House of Delegates representing voters in part of Prince William County, and is facing a challenge from Democrat and former state lawmaker Elizabeth Guzman. Both have different views on how to address data centers, reproductive rights and the increased cost of living, issues which loom large in Northern Virginia’s House District 22.
InsideNoVa
(October 15, 2025)
The Board of County Supervisors’ long-awaited Oct. 14 data center work session seemingly yielded more questions than answers, as the board voted to advance a public hearing on the county noise ordinance update to their last meeting in October.
Prince William Times
(October 14, 2025)
Bristow residents hope the need for a federal permit to disturb wetlands could slow down or even stop the construction of a controversial data center complex behind Amberleigh Station and Silver Leaf Estates. A developer is seeking permission to permanently fill in 4 acres of forested wetlands and nearly three quarters of a mile of streams to build 10 data centers behind their homes in western Prince William County.
Virginia Mercury
(October 16, 2025)
Washington, D.C. metropolitan region leaders on Wednesday voted unanimously to exclude the I-495 Southside Express Lanes construction project from its long-range strategic plan, which had been proposed as a way to ease traffic congestion between Maryland and Virginia.
Loudoun Now
(October 13, 2025)
Last month, as Paul Gilbert was preparing to turn over the reins of NOVA Parks to a new executive director after 20 years in the role, he was awarded the nation’s top award for parkland conservation.
NBC Washington
(October 11, 2025)
[Video] Data centers are moving closer to backyards — casting shadows on homes, humming through holidays, and draining nearly a third of Virginia’s electricity supply. Communities are divided: some see opportunity, others see an industrial invasion. Now, Maryland counties are watching closely. From Prince George’s County’s task force hearings to rural Frederick protests, leaders are weighing whether they can replicate Virginia’s success — and residents are pushing back on where these facilities should go. In this episode of 4 More Context, News4 I-Team’s Ted Oberg breaks it all down with News4 reporters Drew Wilder and Darcy Spencer, and visits an Ashburn, VA neighborhood where a new data center is under construction.
The Frederick News-Post
(October 16, 2025)
The Frederick County Planning Commission on Wednesday was divided about its views on the county's proposed map for a special zoning mechanism for data centers.
The Baltimore Banner
(October 16, 2025)
It took just one signature from Gov. Wes Moore last year to accelerate data center development in Maryland. Now, developer Scott Plank’s War Horse Cities firm, which already builds data centers in Virginia, is reportedly considering similar projects in Maryland.
This article features Piedmont Environmental Council Director of Land Use Julie Bolthouse.
Fredericksburg Free Press
(October 15, 2025)
The conversation was about design standards for data centers, particularly the required setbacks for the facilities from residential property lines, schools, churches, hospitals, daycares and parks.
WRIC
(October 16, 2025)
A husband and wife donated their second conservation easement in September, adding to a designated “Rural Enhancement Area” nearby on Millers Lane in Goochland County.
Richmond BizSense
(October 16, 2025)
After deferring the decision for a month, Powhatan County planning commissioners have given a thumbs down to a proposed expansion of a planned data center campus along Page Road.
VPM
(October 15, 2025)
William & Mary Law School is launching a new Center for Energy Law & Policy, which will "serve as a hub for convening policymakers, scholars and students to address critical issues shaping the future of energy regulation," the university wrote in a recent news release. WHRO spoke with Mark Christie, a longtime state and federal regulator who will serve as the center's founding director and visiting professor.
The Washington Post
(October 15, 2025)
Anger over soaring utility bills is shaking political fault lines, as electricity shortages and price spikes take center stage in nationally watched gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia — and threaten to haunt candidates throughout the country in next year’s midterm elections.
American Farmland Trust
(October 15, 2025)
American Farmland Trust (AFT) has released a new statewide resource to help Virginia’s communities protect farmland and support a thriving agricultural future. The Planning for Agriculture in Virginia Toolkit is an online collection of guidance materials, fact sheets, success stories, and resources designed to help local leaders, land use planners, the farming community, and advocates strengthen farm viability, guide growth, protect and conserve farmland for future generations.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(October 15, 2025)
A real estate developer has dropped its plan to build a 195-acre data center campus in eastern Henrico County. It was the first data center project proposed after Henrico passed a new ordinance making it harder to build data centers.
SOVA Now
(October 15, 2025)
By a 6-2 vote, the Mecklenburg County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday rejected the proposed Finneywood Solar Project near Chase City, the latest in a series of actions by the board that effectively closes the book on large-scale solar developments in Mecklenburg County.
Radio IQ
(October 14, 2025)
A recent tour of a new hyper scale power solution manufacturing facility in Henrico County is putting the spotlight on just how much power data centers will demand in the near future. And while both of Virginia’s gubernatorial candidates know the Commonwealth’s economic future is likely linked to data center demand, they have different ideas on how to power it.
WFXR
(October 14, 2025)
Data centers use a lot of water and electricity. Nikolopoulos says a data center needs as much water as “tens of thousands of households” each day, to make sure computers are working at optimal temperatures. He also says the economic benefit the centers bring– isn’t quite clear.
Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism
(October 13, 2025)
Kenney Barnard’s family has cultivated tobacco on Hoot Owl Hollow Farm in Amelia Court House since the 1950s. Through decades of shifting public sentiment and declining demand, they held firm.
VPM
(October 13, 2025)
Of 24 states tracked by the Energy Justice Lab in 2024, Virginia had the highest rate of utility service disconnections. Staff from the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation gave state lawmakers a slate of proposals to consider last week that aim to reduce the cost of energy for the most vulnerable Virginians — including a utility disconnections dashboard, more robust energy efficiency requirements and state funding for residential solar and storage.
Rappahannock News
(October 13, 2025)
The upcoming Virginia gubernatorial election will influence how environmental and energy policy progresses over the next four years. The two candidates tout interest in renewable and nonrenewable energy generation, but are divided when it comes to rejoining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Virginia Mercury
(October 10, 2025)
A George Mason University report released Friday looks at how Virginia can meet its mandatory goal of decarbonizing the state’s utility providers while also getting more localities on board for certain energy projects. It comes as Virginia faces critical energy demands as ratepayers and lawmakers consider how to meet those needs and make utility bills more affordable. The report projects that Virginia will see an 8% increase in energy demand by 2030 and a 20% increase by 2035, driven largely by the growth of data centers and manufacturing.
WHRO
(October 10, 2025)
Blue catfish are a big, slimy problem in Virginia. The invasive species has spent the past five decades working its way into almost every local waterway and threatens to upend the ecosystem. Virginia officials are weighing a new way to cut down on the population by letting anglers go after them.
Distilled
(October 16, 2025)
There’s been a lot written about AI investment and its impacts in the last year. But somehow, I think most people still underestimate the scale of the current data center build-out that’s happening across the United States.
The Wall Street Journal
(October 15, 2025)
With the push for AI dominance at warp speed, the “Bring Your Own Power” boom is a quick fix for the gridlock of trying to get on the grid. It’s driving an energy Wild West that is reshaping American power.
Southern Environmental Law Center
(October 15, 2025)
Sometimes it’s just a short line on a map that connects yesterday’s plantations to today’s pollution. From forced labor to forced exposure, Black communities still bear the burden of pollution and environmental injustices rooted in slavery and systemic racism. This multimedia storytelling series traces that unbroken line—revealing the past, exposing the present, and charting a path toward a brighter tomorrow.
Data Center Dynamics
(October 15, 2025)
Data centers across the US market will require 22 percent more grid-based power by the end of the year, compared to last year, according to a new report by S&P Global. The report also revealed that data centers will require nearly three times as much grid-based power by 2030 as they did last year.
USA Today
(October 15, 2025)
"If the current lapse in appropriations continues, there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million individuals across the Nation," reads the letter, which was signed by SNAP development director Sasha Gersten-Paal and provided to USA TODAY by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS).
NPR
(October 14, 2025)
Google recently courted the township of Franklin, Ind., so that it could construct a giant campus to house the computer hardware that powers its internet business. But the company needed to rezone more than 450 acres in the Indianapolis suburb, and residents weren't having it.
The Washington Post
(October 12, 2025)
When a developer approached Saline Township, Michigan, with a proposal to turn 250 acres of farmland into a data center, the town board said no, citing opposition from residents. Then came the lawsuit.
WBOY
(October 12, 2025)
Tucker United gathered the community at the Thomas Community Center to provide information on its mission and to allow the community to interact with each other. The door was open for anyone to come and start a conversation about topics related to their community. The most prevalent topic was the movement against the construction of a new power plant and data center in Tucker County.
CNN
(October 12, 2025)
[AUDIO] As the appetite for artificial intelligence rises, so does the need for power-hungry data centers. While residents who live near them complain of the noise and pollution, data suggests they could spike utility bills far and wide. We hear from an electricity law expert on why regulators are thinking of reforms – but will it be too late?
Inside Climate News
(October 8, 2025)
The Huron River winds through parks and wooded areas in eastern Ypsilanti Township where thousands of residents fish, canoe and swim. Now the University of Michigan and Los Alamos National Laboratory want to add a 300,000-square-foot taxpayer-subsidized data center with a 20-acre electric substation to the landscape.
The New York Times
(October 10, 2025)
Global bird populations are declining faster than previously found, largely driven by forest loss. Arctic seals are slipping closer to extinction because of climate change. But there is also good news: Green sea turtles are recovering so well that they have moved from a classification of endangered to least concern. These findings were made public on Friday as an update to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, the global scientific authority on the status of species.
