WARRENTON, VA (April 1, 2026) – The recent ruling by the Virginia Court of Appeals against the Prince William Digital Gateway, in favor of the citizen-backed lawsuits attempting to block it, is another example of the growing grassroots power of Virginians pushing back against uncontrolled data center development.
PEC provided direct testimony to Prince William County, as well as an amicus brief in this case to highlight our concerns.
“This is a huge win for local communities, national parks and the environment! PEC has been concerned about the huge potential impacts of the rezoning of thousands of acres of land adjacent to the Manassas National Battlefield Park and Conway Robinson State Forest, as well as private lands with significant environmental, historic, scenic and cultural resources nearby,” said Chris Miller, president of The Piedmont Environmental Council.
“Data center growth, and the impact on communities, is undoubtedly a kitchen table issue for Virginians. They are starting to wake-up to the fact that unmitigated data center growth is threatening the core things that make life in Virginia so enjoyable – our fresh air and clean, abundant water and self-determination for our lands,” Miller said.
This 2,000+ acre project—one of the largest data center proposals in the world—was planned for 37 data centers and 14 substations. The failure to properly notify the public on the proposed development is indicative of a rush to judgement and a failure to adequately assess the impacts on local, regional, state and national resources, ranging from historic and cultural sites to water quality.
“As Dominion Energy rushes to build out electrical infrastructure to serve large data center campuses approved by localities without state oversight, there are huge risks to ratepayers, ” says Julie Bolthouse, director of land use at The Piedmont Environmental Council. “We don’t know how much of this potentially 3+GW demand was in Dominion’s most recent load forecast which is used to justify new generation and transmission. In late 2025 Dominion had even tried to move forward with two substations on this site to serve Digital Gateway, even as the approval was being reviewed by the court.”
The risk and costs of this project were not only significant for rate payers of Virginia but also to the citizens of Prince William County. The negative impact on historic and agricultural tourism and natural and cultural resources of the County would have far outweighed the advertised benefits. This legal ruling prevents what could have been a disaster for the entire region. It could have required as much energy used by ALL current data centers in Northern Virginia combined. Moreover, the environmental footprint for the energy infrastructure required for the data center growth is 100X greater than the footprint of the data centers alone.
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