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.
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VPM
(January 16, 2026)
Virginia Democrats are eyeing the state's current data center tax allowances as a possible source of new income in a tight budget year. It's just one of many angles legislators are considering to address concerns over power plant and generator emissions, energy and water consumption and land use.
This article quotes Julie Bolthouse, PEC's Director of Land Use
CNN
(January 16, 2026)
The Trump administration and a consortium of governors from northeastern states are asking PJM, the country’s largest electrical grid operator, to hold an emergency power auction as part of an effort to make technology giants pay for surging power costs from new data centers.
Prince William Times
(January 16, 2026)
When the General Assembly kicks off this year’s session this week, Democrats will face one of their greatest challenges of the internet era: making good on their sweeping promises to protect Virginians from the unbridled growth of data centers.
Virginia Mercury
(January 13, 2026)
Sen. Richard Stuart, R-King George, is planning a solar farm on his property that has ignited a fight over easements designed to protect land from development.
The Wall Street Journal
(January 12, 2026)
America’s AI boom is pushing the nation’s largest power-grid operator to the brink of a supply crisis. Sixty-seven million people in a 13-state region stretching from New Jersey to Kentucky get their power from a market operated by nonprofit PJM. So, too, do the many AI data centers springing up in Northern Virginia’s “Data Center Alley,” which have a bottomless appetite for electricity.
WRIC
(January 12, 2026)
Scenic Virginia announced on Sunday that it will be partnering with the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) to make more communities across the Commonwealth accessible. This collaboration will build on Scenic Virginia’s nationally recognized “science-based process for identifying and evaluating Virginia’s most significant views.”
This article quotes John McCarthy, PEC's Senior Advisor & Director of Strategic Partnerships.
Fauquier Times
(January 9, 2026)
The developers behind “Gigaland,” ...have submitted a scaled-down version of their project to county planners. But it’s being met with skepticism from both county supervisors and some community groups – raising doubts about its fate.
This article quotes Chris Miller, PEC's President.
C-VILLE Weekly
(January 15, 2026)
The Albemarle Board of Supervisors is not likely to expand the county’s designated growth areas any time soon, so economic development officials have to make the most of what they have. That includes a 62-acre section of land along Broadway Street on the western side of the Rivanna River that is entirely surrounded by the City of Charlottesville.
Bay Journal
(January 13, 2026)
In 2016, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) estimated it would take 10 years to remove the Hardware River, a lesser-known tributary of the James River, from its list of waters impaired by bacteria. With that 10-year mark approaching, it’s unlikely that the river will be de-listed in 2026, but agencies, advocates and passionate landowners seem determined to eventually make it happen.
Culpeper Star-Exponent
(January 15, 2026)
In Culpeper, Hewa laid out the commonwealth’s energy demands and capacity and called for continued partnership. “The status quo is unsustainable,” he warned, citing a 2025 U.S. Department of Energy report on the nation’s electric grid. “The current outlook demands action now, both nationally and in our state.”
This article quotes a PEC press release about the upcoming Data Center Reform Lobby Day in Richmond on February 9.
Culpeper Times
(January 14, 2026)
A community cleanup is set for this Saturday after a passionate call-to-action from Culpeper Sheriff Timothy Chilton, who wants to take out the trash along one of the county's most heavily-littered corridors.
Fauquier Times
(January 14, 2026)
Friends of The Hollow — a nonprofit organization that has worked for 40 years to save the 262-year old building in the hopes that it might become Fauquier County’s next public park.
Fauquier Times
(January 14, 2026)
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality issued a drought advisory for Fauquier County Tuesday. Fauquier is among 5 counties and 5 cities in northern Virginia that are under a drought warning. Most of Virginia, including 61 counties and 18 cities, is under a drought watch.
The Piedmont Journal Recorder
(January 9, 2026)
The Greene County Agricultural Forestal District (AFD) Committee held a rare special meeting Monday night, trying to focus on two definitions: Agricultural Operations and Bona Fid production of crops, animals, or fowl.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
(January 13, 2026)
Three bills have been introduced for the upcoming Virginia General Assembly session that would authorize the Department of Conservation and Recreation to acquire Oak Hill as Loudoun County’s second state park.
The Piedmont Journal Recorder
(January 14, 2026)
Mountain View Nursing Home has had a discharge permit for treated sewage since its opening. After treatment, the treated effluent is discharged into a dry ditch leading to an unnamed tributary leading to Great Run and eventually to the Rapidan River.
The Daily Progress
(January 13, 2026)
There are no data centers in the town of Orange, but officials there are nevertheless considering changes to its zoning ordinances that could limit the spread of the projects from Northern Virginia farther south — or at the very least slow it.
Rappahannock News
(January 15, 2026)
After residents voiced frustration over a recent “open house” they said limited public discussion, FirstEnergy says it does not plan to offer a presentation or town-hall style meeting on the Page-Sperryville transmission line project, pointing instead to an online virtual meeting, email and phone feedback and a forthcoming state hearing.
Prince William Times
(January 12, 2026)
“With 37 data center buildings — with a square footage roughly equivalent to that of 144 Walmart Supercenters — and 14 electric substations proposed, the Digital Gateway threatens to transform this idyllic portion of Prince William County into a buzzing hive of industrial activity, sucking up vast quantities of water and electricity and stretching transmission lines across the county and beyond,” the brief says. The conservation groups’ brief blasts PW Digital Gateway, contending it would desecrate historic grounds, permanently harm the environment, and diminish the experience of the half a million annual visitors to the Manassas battlefield.
PEC submitted a brief on this case and is mentioned in the article.
Potomac Local News
(January 9, 2026)
“As of Dec. 18, 2025, the total funds spent in the [Digital Gateway] rezoning and real estate assessment litigation is $1,663,478.72,” InsideNoVa [reported], citing a county spokeswoman.
The Daily Progress
(January 16, 2026)
The Commonwealth Transportation Board adopted a resolution earlier this month transferring the Shenandoah Valley Rail Trail, including funding and control of the project, to the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority. That means the proposed trail... will likely have restored rail service running parallel with it.
Royal Examiner
(January 13, 2026)
As Virginia lawmakers begin debating new rules to manage the state’s booming data center industry, many residents in Warren County are pushing back against the idea that these massive, power-hungry facilities should expand into their community.
Canary Media
(January 15, 2026)
Elevate Renewables just acquired a major energy storage project near Virginia’s “Data Center Alley” and plans to get it running by this summer.
Charlottesville Tomorrow
(January 15, 2026)
The Fluvanna County Planning Commission decided on Tuesday in a 3–1 vote that Tenaska’s second gas plant proposal does not fit the county’s comprehensive plan for its future.
The Daily Progress
(January 13, 2026)
A proposed natural gas power plant in Fluvanna County could create dozens of jobs and millions in tax revenue. A researcher says it will also produce 2 to 3 premature deaths a year.
VPM
(January 16, 2026)
The data center boom has spread to all corners of the commonwealth, from its origins in the northern part of the state to counties in Central, Southside and Southwest Virginia. Bolthouse and the Piedmont Environmental Council are clear: Virginia should stop accepting new data centers while the state figures out how it will serve the new electric demand already in the pipeline. She argued that the SCC or Dominion Energy could make that decision, or the legislature could order it.
This article includes multiple quotes from Julie Bolthouse, PEC's Director of Land Use.
Virginia Mercury
(January 16, 2026)
The Center for Biological Diversity announced it was suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over years-long delays in determining if the yellow-spotted woodland salamander should receive special protections. There are only a few hundred remaining salamanders known to exist.
WHRO
(January 14, 2026)
The new platform does not change how mitigation banks are permitted or operated in Virginia, but could make it easier to move through the process.
WFXR
(January 13, 2026)
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has approved the construction of 26.1 miles of pipeline though Pittsylvania County. The permit allows Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to construct a 30-inch diameter natural gas pipeline through a predetermined area.
Virginia Mercury
(January 13, 2026)
President Donald Trump’s administration has set in motion efforts to repeal the Roadless Rule, a 2001 administrative mandate that put 45 million acres of the least developed forest land under protection from logging and construction of roads.
Virginia Mercury
(January 12, 2026)
As the state prepares to inaugurate its next governor and lawmakers return to Richmond for 2026 next General Assembly legislative session this week, energy and environment policies are expected to dominate debates. Advocacy groups are laying out policies they want to see garner lawmakers’ support and the governor’s signature, with many familiar bills that failed in recent years.
Canary Media
(January 12, 2026)
Voters worried about rising electricity prices and the onslaught of power-hungry data centers helped Democrats earn a governing trifecta in Virginia last year. Now, as state lawmakers prepare for a breakneck, 60-day legislative session that begins this Wednesday, clean energy is emerging as a key strategy for dealing with those challenges. “Oftentimes, I go into a legislative session sort of just guessing what people are going to care about,” said Kendl Kobbervig, advocacy and communications director for the nonprofit Clean Virginia. Not this year, she said. “No. 1 is affordability, and second is data center reform.”
Bay Journal
(January 12, 2026)
Partisan clashes in Pennsylvania and budget headaches in Maryland cloud prospects for climate and environmental legislation in those states this year. But things are different in Virginia, where the election of a Democratic governor has raised expectations that measures stalled by her Republican predecessor will move forward.
Data Center Dynamics
(January 9, 2026)
Dominion Energy is suing the US government over its stop-work order that directed all major US offshore wind projects under construction to pause... It argues 2.6GW Coastal Virginia offshore project is crucial to meeting region's data center demand.
6 News Richmond
(January 9, 2026)
A sprawling pasture in Caroline County where racing legend Secretariat once grazed as a young colt will be protected from development forever, thanks to a farmer's dedication to preserving Virginia's equine heritage.
Bay Journal
(January 9, 2026)
The nonprofit organization Wild Virginia filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Dec. 22 claiming the agency failed to identify Virginia waters polluted with “forever chemicals,” which would have triggered pollution reduction plans.
Rappahannock News
(January 8, 2026)
The Virginia Clean Economy Act pushes the commonwealth towards a complete renewable energy portfolio in a few short decades. One challenge the law’s opponents often cite is that solar energy is not as easily dispatchable as gas power. With energy storage technology becoming more mainstream, VCEA proponents are aiming to ramp up the state’s investment in them and proposing bills to that effect to be debated in the 2026 legislative session, starting next week.
WVTF
(January 8, 2026)
As a sovereign nations, Tribes in Virginia have the right to consult with state agencies on certain environmental permits and reviews. This week, the Rappahannock Tribe said that didn’t happen with two projects related to the Rappahannock River.
Inside Climate News
(January 7, 2026)
The State Corporation Commission in November approved a new Dominion Energy rate increase for 2026 that will add $16 a month to the typical residential bill and assign more costs to data center operators to cover necessary grid upgrades the following year. After months of legal filings and a hearing that lasted nearly two weeks, instead of the typical few days, the SCC took what lawmakers from both parties and consumer advocates considered a good first step toward deciding what is a fair way to pay grid upgrades needed to accommodate the giant server farms that power Silicon Valley’s race to develop energy-intensive artificial intelligence systems.
Canary Media
(January 16, 2026)
Since President Donald Trump took office nearly a year ago, his administration has announced at least two dozen policy and regulatory actions aimed at hindering the build-out of wind and solar projects, including rescinding federal tax credits, withdrawing grants and loans, and freezing permitting approvals.
The Washington Post
(January 15, 2026)
Over the past few years, millions of Americans have seen their electricity bills skyrocket. Since February 2020, electricity prices have increased by an average of 40 percent across the country. In some areas, the rate is even faster — in Washington, D.C., electricity costs increased 93 percent from July 2020 to July 2025. But the rise in costs hasn’t affected each type of user equally.
Bloomberg
(January 15, 2026)
President Donald Trump and the governors of several US Northeastern states agreed to push for an emergency wholesale electricity auction that would compel technology companies to effectively fund new power plants. The Trump administration and some US governors plan to direct grid operator PJM Interconnection LLC to hold an auction for tech companies to bid on 15-year contracts for new electricity generation capacity.
The New York Times
(January 15, 2026)
Despite many proposals, there is little consensus among governors, lawmakers and tech executives about exactly how much the companies behind data centers should pay for electricity.
Bloomberg
(January 13, 2026)
Now, Ohio and other states are weighing whether to roll back those exemptions for future sites amid a boom in data center development and residents’ concerns about the resources required to power them: A single large data center can consume as much power as a mid-sized city and millions of gallons of water annually. And the facilities create a small fraction of the permanent jobs traditional factories do, making them targets for politicians shaking the couch cushions for money to pay for income and property tax cuts.
The Washington Post
(January 13, 2026)
In a bid to tamp down growing unrest in communities over tech giants’ expansion of power-hungry data centers, President Donald Trump said his administration would push Silicon Valley companies to ensure their massive computer farms do not drive up people’s electricity bills.
Heatmap
(January 12, 2026)
A Heatmap Pro review of public records shows that 25 data centers were scrubbed last year after local pushback — four times as many as 2024.
Forbes
(January 11, 2026)
The fastest‑growing piece of America’s artificial intelligence infrastructure is colliding with one of its most finite local resources: water.
The Wall Street Journal
(January 9, 2026)
Meta Platforms unveiled a series of agreements that would make it an anchor customer for new and existing nuclear power in the U.S., where it needs city-size amounts of electricity for its artificial-intelligence data centers.
Canary Media
(January 9, 2026)
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to let 11 coal plants dump toxic coal ash into unlined pits until 2031 — a full decade later than allowed under current federal rules.
