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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Fauquier Now
(April 9, 2026)
Legislation to purchase the former estate of the fifth Founding Father for use as a new state park in Loudoun County was continued until the 2027 session, but it could still be acquired pending approval of the final budget.
Harvard School of Public Health
(April 8, 2026)
Many of data centers are building or planning to build on-site fossil fuel-driven power plants to alleviate strain on the local energy grid. Michael Cork has conducted analyses showing that air pollution from these new power sources could have serious health and economic impacts.
This article mentions The Piedmont Environmental Council and highlights a study PEC commissioned to better understand the air pollution impacts of data centers. Read our recent press release on the results of this study.
The Daily Progress
(April 7, 2026)
“A corporation is going to come on our property to install these towers, and they’re taking down what we intentionally built to keep our house sustainable and solar-powered, only to run electricity for data centers."
WUSA 9
(April 6, 2026)
For nine years, Lindsay Shaw enjoyed the quiet of her suburban neighborhood. Now, the cybersecurity professional says she and her neighbors are unable to avoid a 24-hour whistle that has turned their homes far from tranquil. The source of the sound is a Vantage data center complex on Glenn Drive in Sterling, the first in Loudoun County to bypass the traditional power grid by generating its own electricity.
This article mentions The Piedmont Environmental Council.
Prince William Times
(April 1, 2026)
Virginians’ power bills have increased 14.5% since 2022 and doubled in 25 years....Utilities say they are doing their best to protect residential customers from the soaring cost of the electricity they buy on daily markets, mainly driven by data center demand and the cost of fuel.
The Piedmont Journal Recorder
(April 8, 2026)
April 13-20 is International Dark Sky Week, and Greene County will be celebrating with an evening under the stars on April 18 from 8 – 10 p.m. at the Greene County Community Park to watch the annual Lyrid Meteor Shower and learn to identify Sspring constellations.
Rappahannock News
(April 8, 2026)
Land conservation efforts in 2025 protected hundreds of acres in Rappahannock County and more than 1,200 acres along the borders of Shenandoah National Park, according to a Wednesday news release from the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC).
This article highlights land conservation achieved in 2025 within The Piedmont Environmental Council's nine-county region. It is based on a PEC-issued press release.
Rappahannock News
(April 6, 2026)
Houses in Rappahannock, Fauquier, Culpeper and nearby counties are so scarce and expensive that thousands of buyers and renters are being shut out of the market altogether. This sobering assessment found that “homeownership has become increasingly out of reach for all but the highest income households in the Greater Piedmont region.”
The Piedmont Journal Recorder
(April 4, 2026)
Spring is a critical bridge season for wildlife. After a long winter, animals need high-energy food sources to fuel migration and nesting as well as dense cover to protect their young. From early blooming trees to shrubs, here are the plants that have specifically evolved with Virginia fauna to provide these resources during the spring months.
The Crozet Gazette
(April 3, 2026)
How does sound affect our mental health and wellness? There is a surprising amount of information on this topic, much of it not widely known. We will cover two impacts, one negative and one positive. Spoiler alert: it’s spring and the songbirds are singing!
The Crozet Gazette
(April 2, 2026)
If limited growing space is hindering your gardening efforts, consider vertical gardening. This approach uses a variety of structures—trellises, stakes and cages, for example—that enable plants to grow upward rather than spread out. It can be applied to home gardens, balconies, decks, patios or any other outdoor or indoor places where making best use of available growing space is desired.
The Daily Progress
(April 8, 2026)
The goal is obtaining $10 million for the Albemarle County Affordable Housing Investment Fund, but getting there is proving to be a chore for the county Board of Supervisors. Proposals have included advertising a 15-cent increase to the personal property tax rate and reallocating money from different funds into the fund that supports a variety of affordable housing initiatives.
C-VILLE Weekly
(April 8, 2026)
On April 1, the Board of Supervisors approved a request from the Great Eastern Management Company to increase the number of units at North Pointe, a planned development originally rezoned in 2006 for a total of 893 homes.
C-VILLE Weekly
(April 8, 2026)
While staff in the City of Charlottesville’s Department of Neighborhood Development Services continue to process land-use applications under a new set of zoning rules, there are still many projects approved under the old rules waiting to be built. One of them is an apartment building that would be constructed close to downtown, where a pediatrician’s office currently stands, in the Little High neighborhood.
The Daily Progress
(April 4, 2026)
Charlottesville needs more housing, but two planned housing projects targeting University of Virginia students have some residents up in arms, even calling for an overhaul of the city's fledgling zoning code, which was adopted in 2023 specifically to bring more housing online and going so far as to call it a "failure of democracy."
The Winchester Star
(April 6, 2026)
A nonprofit organization is getting more time to address potential noise problems from a community services facility it's proposing to establish. In a unanimous vote Friday, the Clarke County Planning Commission deferred considering a special-use permit request by the White Post Village Association (WPVA) for the second time.
Culpeper Star-Exponent
(April 9, 2026)
Residents and local government officials sent a clear message Tuesday regarding the proposed Valley Link 765-kilovolt transmission line project — not in Culpeper County. Residents filled the boardroom to speak against it during the public forum at the evening meeting and protested outside before the morning meeting. They carried signs reading “Take a stand before Valley Link seizes our land” and wore yellow t-shirts reading “No Valley Link.”
Culpeper Times
(April 9, 2026)
The Culpeper County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to oppose a proposed 765-kilovolt transmission line, while also debating whether to include formal opposition to a related substation planned for the Richardsville area.
Northern Virginia Magazine
(April 8, 2026)
Earth Day can trace its origins to Virginia. And more than 50 years later, the NoVA countryside is still one of the best places to celebrate it. These three eco-friendly inns in and around Northern Virginia consider the environment year-round, not just on April 22.
Fauquier Times
(April 8, 2026)
When people drive past Holstein cattle, they likely think about the milk the notorious black-and-white dairy cows produce. They probably don’t think about the tons of manure that the livestock leave behind and that dairy farmers have to deal with.
Fauquier Times
(April 7, 2026)
Rain-soaked soil, steadily warming temperatures, and long days of sunlight make spring a great time to add plants to gardens and landscapes. Many native plant sales are being held throughout the area in the next few months — just in time to get plants in the ground to support pollinators all year long.
The Piedmont Journal Recorder
(April 8, 2026)
April 13-20 is International Dark Sky Week, and Greene County will be celebrating with an evening under the stars on April 18 from 8 – 10 p.m. at the Greene County Community Park to watch the annual Lyrid Meteor Shower and learn to identify Sspring constellations.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
(April 9, 2026)
A public hearing is scheduled on Leesburg’s Zoning Ordinance Rewrite draft at 7 p.m. April 16 at the Leesburg Town Hall. The town’s planning commission is finishing its review and is inviting public feedback on the draft.
Northern Virginia Magazine
(April 8, 2026)
Earth Day can trace its origins to Virginia. And more than 50 years later, the NoVA countryside is still one of the best places to celebrate it. These three eco-friendly inns in and around Northern Virginia consider the environment year-round, not just on April 22.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
(April 7, 2026)
Last month, several Loudoun County leaders decried The George Washington University’s decision to sell its Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn to Amazon Data Services. Now, the county will investigate how the property could be redeveloped, with the Board of Supervisors voting 7-0 on April 7 to tell the county staff to research and report back.
Fauquier Times
(April 7, 2026)
Rain-soaked soil, steadily warming temperatures, and long days of sunlight make spring a great time to add plants to gardens and landscapes. Many native plant sales are being held throughout the area in the next few months — just in time to get plants in the ground to support pollinators all year long.
Loudoun Now
(April 7, 2026)
The first of three meetings designed to spread awareness on groundwater conditions in rural Loudoun was hosted last night at Woodgrove High School, drawing just over 100 community members. The gatherings are organized by the Loudoun County Preservation and Conservation Coalition and focus on a study published by the organization last fall that documents a decline in groundwater levels.
This article quotes Piedmont Environmental Council Senior Field Representative Gem Bingol, who also serves as Loudoun's environmental commission vice chair.
Loudoun Now
(April 6, 2026)
Last fall, the Loudoun County Preservation and Conservation Coalition issued an assessment documenting the decline in groundwater levels over the past several decades. Starting this week, the organization will begin a series of public presentations to discuss the implications of that trend.
This article quotes Piedmont Environmental Council Senior Field Representation Gem Bingol.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
(April 3, 2026)
Twenty Lovettsville property owners have filed a legal petition against Loudoun County’s electrical infrastructure policies, saying a newly adopted Comprehensive Plan Amendment would hurt their properties and their quality of life.
Loudoun Now
(April 3, 2026)
As a ruling by the State Corporation Commission on a proposal by Dominion Energy to build new transmission lines through eastern Loudoun is expected any day, area homeowners associations are making a final push to have a portion of the lines buried underground.
Virginia Mercury
(April 8, 2026)
A court ruling has once again halted a massive rezoning effort in Prince William County that would have allowed dozens of data centers to be built near Manassas National Battlefield Park. Now residents and conservation agencies are pushing the county Board of Supervisors to drop out of the lawsuit.
The article quotes Piedmont Environmental Council President Chris Miller.
InsideNoVa
(April 8, 2026)
“Rarely in life do we get a do-over,” Schlossberg said, “and certainly not an elected body. They have an opportunity to right their wrong, and citizens are looking to have them restore some semblance of trust in those we elect to represent us..."
Spotlight Delaware
(April 9, 2026)
Northern Virginia has the highest concentration of data centers in the world. As Delaware sees an influx of new data center proposals, the state can take lessons from a place that has reaped the massive economic benefits — and faced environmental and quality of life consequences.
This article quotes Piedmont Environmental Council Land Use Director Julie Bolthouse.
WJLA-ABC7News
(April 3, 2026)
Campbell said the fundamental flaw in this plan is that West Virginians, whose land rights are being trampled, will have to pay higher energy bills for the benefit of some 500 data centers that dot the landscape in Northern Virginia.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(April 8, 2026)
The General Assembly may not have a budget agreement to consider when it returns to Richmond for a special session April 23 because of an impasse between Senate budget leaders and Virginia's data center industry on the proposed repeal of a lucrative sales tax exemption for data center equipment.
Virginia Law Weekly
(April 8, 2026)
Mark Zuckerberg famously coined the Silicon Valley mantra, “move fast and break things.” What happens when the “thing” being broken is a state’s water supply? Or utility pricing? These are the questions that should plague lawmakers as Virginia solidifies its role as the nation’s data center capital.
This article quotes Piedmont Environmental Council President Chris Miller and highlights a symposium for which Miller was a panelist.
29 News
(April 8, 2026)
Pressure is mounting on Virginia Democrats, who remain in a deadlock on the budget ahead of a special session in late April. Two weeks before lawmakers return to Richmond, Democrats still have not resolved a dispute over whether to phase out the sales and use tax exemption for data centers.
This story includes an interview with Piedmont Environmental Council President Chris Miller.
VPM
(April 7, 2026)
Manufactured homes are put together in factories, transported to land plots and typically cost less than houses constructed on site — ultimately resulting in cost savings for the people who live in them.
Virginia Mercury
(April 6, 2026)
As temperatures climb, some parts of the commonwealth are heating up faster than others — a result of too few trees and too little shade. Neighborhoods without tree canopy can be up to 15 degrees hotter than those with tree cover, and often those areas are home to communities of color and lower income households.
Politico
(April 8, 2026)
A small Wisconsin city home to a data center project backed by President Donald Trump voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to restrict future data centers, in a first-of-its-kind referendum that backers said could offer a blueprint for AI infrastructure opponents around the country.
The Wall Street Journal
(April 8, 2026)
Late at night, or when her 18-month-old daughter is napping, Jessica Sharp logs onto Chat GPT and asks it to help her in her fight to stop a data center from being built just steps away from her home. The irony isn’t lost on her. “I thought this was my stay-at-home-mom era, until I found out about this data center in my literal backyard,” said Sharp.
The Wall Street Journal
(April 7, 2026)
Lawmakers in more than 10 states have proposed temporary bans on data-center construction this year. Dozens of county and city governments have already passed such measures.
The Christian Broadcasting Network
(April 6, 2026)
"You're building something you haven't planned for. It's huge. It's going to cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and we might end up being stuck with the bill. People are already seeing big jumps in their electrical bill over the last two years, it's been in the range of 30 percent," Miller told CBN News.
This article features an interview with Piedmont Environmental Council President Chris Miller.
Cowboy State Daily
(April 4, 2026)
From a coalition of rural landowners outside Cheyenne to a state legislator in Bozeman to an advocacy group in Maine pushing for the nation's first statewide construction moratorium, a common thread is emerging across rural America: people want answers before more data centers are built.
The pushback is playing out in real time.
Heatmap
(April 3, 2026)
Data centers are swallowing American politics. But on the policy front, states are only in the infant stages of regulating them. After reviewing legislative responses in the top five states for data center fights – Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas, Georgia and Indiana – I found the seeds of new rules around sales taxes for computer equipment, project siting, energy and water usage, non-disclosure agreements and grid upgrade costs.
