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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Loudoun Now
(January 8, 2026)
After nearly 600 speakers signed up to speak during a hearing on Dominion Energy’s proposed transmission line in Loudoun County, most of the case was delayed from its originally scheduled December start date. It resumed this morning. The Golden to Mars Transmission line is part of a planned infrastructure loop designed to increase the reliability in the regional grid. Dominion is requesting permission to build 230- and 500-kilovolt lines beginning near the intersection of Rt. 28 and W&OD Trail and connecting a new substation southeast of Old Ox Road. The lines would pass through densely populated residential areas and near a high school and middle school.
Fauquier Times
(January 7, 2026)
When the General Assembly meets Jan. 14, 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. Last year’s assembly failed to enact dozens of proposed bills targeting the energy-intensive data centers. Only one made it to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s desk and he vetoed it. That bill would have required data center developers to examine the impact of new construction on water, agriculture and nearby residences.
This is Part 11 of an ongoing series of stories — The New Energy Crisis — that explores the repercussions for our region by the accelerating use of energy-intensive artificial intelligence. It is a project of the Fauquier Times and Prince William Times. This article mentions PEC President, Chris Miller.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(January 7, 2026)
Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative, serving 180,000 homes and businesses in the heart of Northern Virginia's white-hot global data center market is raising its wholesale power rate for the third time in 12 months to pay for the record cost of electric capacity to meet rising demand for power.
The Washington Post
(January 6, 2026)
“We know Trump wants data centers and Kevin Stitt wants data centers, but these things don’t affect these people,” said Brian Ingram, a Trump voter living in the shadow of the planned project. “You know, this affects us.” Ingram was standing before a homemade sign he planted on his front lawn that said “Jesus Was Born on Ag Land.” The grassroots blowback comes from deep red states as much as from left-wing groups such as the Democratic Socialists of America, which have helped draw hundreds of residents to hearings in Arizona, Indiana and Maryland.
Fauquier Times
(January 6, 2026)
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has quietly adopted a new interpretation of its rules that allows power-hungry data centers to run on emergency generators if they get short notice that their electricity will be cut off due to power line repairs. The decision to adopt the guidance came despite 400 messages sent to the DEQ opposing the move. Fewer than 10 comments supported the measure.
This article quotes Piedmont Environmental Council Director of Land Use Julie Bolthouse
Loudoun Now
(January 2, 2026)
The Board of Supervisors opened 2025 by approving a work plan for the county’s Department of Planning and Zoning to revamp regulations governing data centers. That project defined data center conversations in Loudoun throughout 2025 and is expected to continue to do so in 2026. Loudoun is home to the largest concentration of data centers in the world – although it has lost its title as the most rapidly growing data center market. In Loudoun’s $4.7 billion fiscal year 2025 budget, data centers made up 38% of the county’s General Fund revenue and nearly half of its property tax revenue.
Information Charlottesville
(January 8, 2026)
The organization that promotes Albemarle County and Charlottesville as a destination for travelers has endorsed a request that the Virginia Tourism Corporation create a new region for localities in the Piedmont region. “You’ll see in that state tourism plan that we’re part of the region with Richmond and all the way down to Danville,” said Courtney Cacatian, the executive director of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It’s a huge central Virginia region.”
Free Lance-Star
(January 2, 2026)
Fredericksburg-area localities are encouraging residents to voluntarily conserve water as the central portion of Virginia, from the top to the bottom of the state, is under a drought watch advisory.
C-VILLE Weekly
(January 7, 2026)
Think of this as Charlottesville’s field guide to the new year. We rounded up the city’s most dialed-in experts in politics, food, art, weather, and beyond, and asked them to predict what’s coming up for 2026. Their collective wisdom charts the trends, shifts, and stories that will shape the year.
This article features sections written by PEC's Kim Biasiolli and Peter Krebs.
C-VILLE Weekly
(January 7, 2026)
The Albemarle Planning Commission has recommended denial of a developer’s second request to fill in a portion of the floodplain in order to build a commercial building in the county’s Broadway Blueprint. The Commission had voted 4 to 3 in April 2025 to recommend approval of Elemental Ecotech’s first version of the permit, but the six-member Board of Supervisors denied the permit in June with a tie vote.
C-VILLE Weekly
(January 7, 2026)
In yet another test of the city’s new zoning code, the Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review has denied a necessary permit required for the current design of an apartment complex.
The Crozet Gazette
(January 3, 2026)
County officials and consultants hosted a public meeting in Crozet on December 4 to engage with the public regarding potential routes for a proposed Three Notched Trail Shared-Use Path running from Charlottesville to the Blue Ridge Tunnel.
The Crozet Gazette
(January 3, 2026)
The Albemarle County Planning Commission heard a request on November 25 for a rezoning of a small parcel at 5546 Three Notch’d Road (Rt. 240) to allow for greater housing density. The property was acquired by the Greater Charlottesville Habitat for Humanity organization in 2024 with the intent to build an affordable two-residence duplex on the site.
The Winchester Star
(January 5, 2026)
A local organization is partnering with two regional ones to help Clarke County Public Schools students explore the environment through outdoor, hands-on activities. The Clarke County Education Foundation (CCEF) is spearheading the Clarke County Living Laboratories project. It’s receiving help from the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC), which provided a $10,000 grant, and Casey Trees, which will provide five learning experiences from March through May.
The Winchester Star
(January 4, 2026)
Clarke County’s Bee City USA affiliate is seeking ideas for protecting bees and other pollinating creatures while restoring and preserving their habitats. A public meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. Jan. 14 in the library at the Blandy Experimental Farm, off U.S. 50 (John Mosby Highway) near Boyce, to receive input.
Culpeper Star-Exponent
(January 8, 2026)
Every year, Culpeper Soil and Water Conservation District Board of Directors selects one farm per member county to receive a State Clean Water Farm Award. The recipient of the 2025 Clean Water Farm Award for Culpeper County is Glebe Farm, located in Brandy Station. The farm represents five generations of hardworking and adaptable farmers from the Swan family...
Fauquier Times
(January 6, 2026)
Jim Hankins, executive director of the education farm, offers annual business and introductory farming courses meant to help aspiring farmers make informed decisions about whether to start their own operations. Classes will begin in late February at Fauquier County’s Virginia Cooperative Extension office on Saturday afternoons.
VPM
(January 5, 2026)
VPM News State Politics Reporter Jahd Khalil recently spoke with McAuliff at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, as part of a series of interviews conducted with the newest members of Virginia's House of Delegates. McAuliff says that with so much of the world's internet running through Virginia, it's unrealistic to put so much of the burden on localities to understand the implications of a new data center. He also spoke about farms, conservation and what success looks like to him.
Fauquier Now
(January 5, 2026)
Leslie Cheek, III, dedicated conservationist and former president of Citizens for Fauquier County, died Dec. 14 at his farm after a long illness.
Loudoun Now
(January 30, 2026)
On the fifth anniversary of White’s Ferry closing, community members in Poolesville, MD, gathered along the Potomac River to call for collaboration, allowing for the reopening of the ferry that reduced up to 30 minutes off commuters’ one-way trip and drove economic development in the town.
Loudoun Now
(January 8, 2026)
Supervisors on Tuesday allocated nearly $194 million in revenues that exceeded the fiscal year 2025 budget expectations, focusing on one-time uses in the coming budget and setting aside $25 million for the county’s reserve fund. Supervisor Laura A. Tekrony earned support for a motion to allocate funding for a Goose Creek Stone Bridge rehabilitation project. With that proposal, $750,000 would be moved from the federal impacts fund and allocated for design work on the bridge.
Loudoun Now
(January 7, 2026)
With just one week until the 2026 General Assembly convenes, Loudoun residents on Tuesday told state representatives they want to see more data center regulation, affordability initiatives and better care for firefighters during a pre-session public hearing. The event, hosted at Leesburg’s Town Hall, was attended by Del. David Reid (D-28), Sen. Russet Perry (D-31), Sen. Kannan Srinivasan (D-32), Del. JJ Singh (D-26), Del. Atoosa Reaser (D-29) and delegate-elect John McAuliff, who will represent District 30. Speakers were encouraged to present their concerns and priorities for upcoming session. Several said the impacts of data centers are top of mind.
Data Center Dynamics
(January 7, 2026)
Digital Realty is looking to expand one of its data center campuses in Loudoun County, Virginia. Digital Realty has previously told Data Center Dynamics that Digital Dulles could total 14 buildings and up to 1GW of capacity via six substations. Originally set to total some 7.5 million sq ft across 425 acres, but since upped to 11.7 million sq ft, the company has billed it as the world’s largest multi-tenant data center campus.
VPM
(January 5, 2026)
VPM News State Politics Reporter Jahd Khalil recently spoke with McAuliff at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, as part of a series of interviews conducted with the newest members of Virginia's House of Delegates. McAuliff says that with so much of the world's internet running through Virginia, it's unrealistic to put so much of the burden on localities to understand the implications of a new data center. He also spoke about farms, conservation and what success looks like to him.
Loudoun Now
(December 30, 2025)
As residents continue to raise concerns about the impacts of data centers and their associated infrastructure on their communities and the growth of artificial intelligence drives more demand for more computing power, legislators are looking for ways to protect communities while meeting demand. Last year, Sen. Russet Perry (D-31), Srinivasan, Del. JJ Singh (D-26) and Del. Geary Higgins (R-30) all introduced bills related to this issue, but with little success. This year, legislators are hoping the tide has turned and that they will make more headway. Reid has eight bills related to this issue with several stemming from recommendations in a 2024 report by the General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.
Rappahannock News
(January 7, 2026)
What was billed as an “open house” about rebuilding the Page-Sperryville transmission line left many of the roughly 100 people who packed the Sperryville Volunteer Fire Department on Wednesday night feeling unsatisfied and still searching for answers.
InsideNoVa
(January 7, 2026)
A follow-up Brentsville District town hall tentatively scheduled for this week with members of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors has been delayed indefinitely as Dominion Energy mulls new transmission line routes and the potential to build underground. According to a Dec. 22 letter obtained by InsideNoVa from Christopher Shorter, Prince William's county executive, to State Corporation Commission Chairman Samuel Towell, Dominion is planning to submit its proposal for the Nokesville-Bristow 230-kilovolt power line to the commission in the second quarter of 2026.
National Parks Traveler
(January 6, 2026)
Efforts to block what has been described as the world's largest digital data processing plant from locating next to Manassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia have been joined by six advocacy groups, which contend the project if allowed would cause "irreparable desecration of hallowed ground."
DC News Now
(January 5, 2026)
Metro announced Monday that in 2025, 146.8 million trips were completed on the Metrorail, and 118.8 million trips were taken on Metrobus. Combined, Metro completed a total of 265.7 million trips, according to officials. This is a 5.8% increase from 2024.
Bay Journal
(January 5, 2026)
A mixed-use development in Washington DC is being powered by a combination of renewable energy and newly trained local employees. The micro grid is a self-contained system that includes energy generation and consumption. Solar energy charges on-site solar panels during the day and in the evening, and the facility pulls power from the batteries, allowing the entire operation to function independently of the regional energy grid.
ABC 13 News
(January 7, 2026)
The Campbell County Board of Supervisors voted to postpone changing their county ordinance regarding zoning for data centers for the next 120 days. During their meeting on Tuesday night, the board voted 4-3 to take those 120 days and read the JLARC study on data centers and to go over all citizen comments before making any further decisions. In December, the board voted 5-2 to adopt an emergency ordinance requiring any data center developers to apply for a special use permit and do away with by-right usage.
Bay Journal
(January 7, 2026)
Tense public hearings and protests mocking Dominion Energy have followed the proposed natural gas plant in Chesterfield County, VA, throughout its approval process. If approved, the plant will be the first new gas plant in Virginia since the Clean Economy Act was passed. The surrounding community opposes the plant after experiencing 80 years of air pollution generated by a coal plant that operated on the same site.
The Winchester Star
(January 7, 2026)
The proposed changes include updated definitions for two types of substations and requiring a full-screen buffer around the perimeter of substation facilities located in the Rural Areas (RA) zoning district. The proposal does not include requiring a conditional-use permit (CUP) for substations on RA land.
The Northern Virginia Daily
(January 6, 2026)
The Commonwealth Transportation Board voted Tuesday to transfer the Shenandoah Valley rail corridor project, and the remaining portion of the General Assembly's $35 million trail allocation, from the Virginia Department of Transportation to the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority. The move clears the path for a potential new state-backed partnership with the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(January 8, 2026)
A delegate from Virginia’s data center heartland will ask the General Assembly to break new ground in Virginia by requiring that big energy users get a permit from electricity regulators at the State Corporation Commission. It’s part of a package of bills on data centers filed by Del. Josh Thomas, D-Prince William, and the first signals about what’s shaping up to be a major focus of the 2026 General Assembly session: the price of electricity and the impact of energy-hungry data centers on Virginians' electric bills.
Virginia Mercury
(January 8, 2026)
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.
Virginia Mercury
(January 8, 2026)
Nurdles, typically less than 5 millimeters in diameter, are the basic building blocks of nearly all plastic products. But when they are mishandled during manufacturing or transport, they can slip through storm drains and into waterways, posing a health threat to both wildlife and humans. California enacted a law designed to curb nurdle pollution in 2007. Now the issue is gaining attention elsewhere: In 2025, legislators in Illinois, New Jersey and Virginia introduced bills.
Inside Climate News
(January 7, 2026)
Provisions could cut down on speculative growth in the data center sector, but don’t go far enough in protecting residential ratepayers, consumer advocates say.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(January 6, 2026)
An electric cooperative serving 180,000 homes and businesses in the heart of Northern Virginia's white-hot global data center market is raising its wholesale power rate for the third time in 12 months to pay for the record cost of electric capacity to meet rising demand for power. Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative, based in Manassas, announced Tuesday that it has increased its wholesale power rate by 1.1 cents per kilowatt-hour. That amounts to $11.20 a month for the typical residential customer, who will pay about $32 more a month than before the first of three rate hikes took effect a year ago, on Jan. 1, 2025.
WTOP News
(January 6, 2026)
Democrat Abigail Spanberger will soon be sworn into office as Virginia’s 75th governor, making her the first woman to lead the Commonwealth. Spanberger joined WTOP’s Shawn Anderson and Anne Kramer to discuss her plans as she prepares to serve as Virginia’s governor for the next four years.
VPM
(January 5, 2026)
VPM News State Politics Reporter Jahd Khalil recently spoke with McAuliff at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, as part of a series of interviews conducted with the newest members of Virginia's House of Delegates. McAuliff says that with so much of the world's internet running through Virginia, it's unrealistic to put so much of the burden on localities to understand the implications of a new data center. He also spoke about farms, conservation and what success looks like to him.
VPM
(January 5, 2026)
Virginia Democrats campaigned on affordability this year — and incoming Gov. Abigail Spanberger made energy costs a key part of that message. As the 2026 General Assembly session approaches, lawmakers are already debating how best to address rates and what costs are worthwhile.
Virginia Mercury
(January 5, 2026)
Sen. Roem has reintroduced Senate Bill 56 for the 2026 General Assembly session, which is set to begin next week, reviving an effort to tighten limits on how much state and local governments can charge for public records and to clarify how agencies seek court relief when responding to large or complex requests.
WDBJ
(January 2, 2026)
Virginia has over 600 data centers, by far the most of any state in the country. That expansion is reaching Southwest Virginia. On Friday, WDBJ7 spoke with a Virginia Tech researcher to learn about a recent workshop the school conducted about the impact of data centers around the state.
Bay Journal
(January 2, 2026)
Overall oxygen conditions in the Chesapeake Bay during 2025 were near the average observed in recent decades. But as is often the case, “average” obscures conditions that at times were both notably better and worse than normal.
The New Energy Crisis
(January 1, 2026)
When it was passed in 2020, the Virginia Clean Economy Act was heralded as the first law of its kind in the South. It talked of closing coal-fired plants and laid out a schedule for Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power to produce completely carbon-free electricity by 2045 and 2050 respectively. But five years after passage, its clean-up has stalled. The data-center and AI explosion is forcing utilities to take desperate measures to generate more energy, even using dirty fuels. And, it turns out, the law provided exemptions allowing them to do so. Now, Dominion Energy says it does not see how it can transition to clean energy by 2045.
This is Part 10 of an ongoing series of stories — The New Energy Crisis — that explores the repercussions for our region by the accelerating use of energy-intensive artificial intelligence. It is a project of the Fauquier Times and Prince William Times.
WVTF
(December 31, 2025)
Some people call it balcony solar. Others call it plug in solar. The idea is that people would be able to install small solar units at their home without getting a utility interconnection agreement. Delegate Delores Oates is a Republican from Front Royal who says she started looking into the issue when a constituent asked why some solar devices are not allowed in Virginia. Now she's crafting legislation members of the General Assembly will consider in January.
DW
(November 19, 2025)
Northern Virginia, the epicenter of the global data center boom, is experiencing rapid expansion as tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon race to meet the soaring demand for artificial intelligence and cloud computing. While the region’s fiber-optic infrastructure makes it ideal for data centers, some residents have voiced concerns over rising power costs, environmental impacts, and the encroachment of massive facilities into residential areas.
The New York Times
(January 8, 2026)
A record-setting 21 thunderstorm events each caused at least $1 billion in damages, a sign that more people and property are in harm’s way.
Canary Media
(January 7, 2026)
Federal regulators are demanding that PJM Interconnection, the country’s biggest power market, find a faster way to connect data centers to the grid without spiking energy costs or threatening reliability. Those regulators and other energy experts increasingly believe that a practice known as flexible interconnection is key to juggling those imperatives — and a recent study offers compelling supporting evidence.
Morning AgClips
(January 7, 2026)
With Congress back in session, legislators will take up a set of issues they haven’t comprehensively addressed since 2018 – the year the last farm bill passed. The most recent farm bill’s provisions expired in 2023. They have been renewed one year at a time ever since, but without the comprehensive overhaul that used to accompany farm bills.
The New York Times
(January 7, 2026)
President Trump announced on Wednesday that he was withdrawing the United States from the bedrock international agreement that forms the basis for countries to rein in climate change. The treaty, which has been in place for 34 years, counts all of the other nations of the world as members.
Canary Media
(January 6, 2026)
Electricity demand will clearly outpace supply in the coming years, and concerted federal efforts are further reducing that supply. So, does that mean we are inevitably headed for an energy crisis? Nearly everyone I spoke with for this story believed the crisis was coming, if not already upon us. “The mismatch just grows every day, with every new project cancellation and every new data center,” said Jesse Lee, a senior adviser at Climate Power, which advocates for action on climate change. “When you mismatch supply and demand that way, you get prices going through the roof.”
E&E News
(January 6, 2026)
Across the U.S., energy policymakers and power grid operators have three broad goals at the top of their 2026 priority lists: enable AI dominance. Secure electricity supply. Keep power prices from spiraling. But hitting those targets is challenged by a simple question that remains hard to answer: What’s real and what’s hype when it comes to data center demand for electricity? The dilemma is front and center at PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest regional power grid, serving 67 million people in 13 states from the Atlantic coast to Chicago. Later this month, PJM plans to release an updated estimate of future electricity demand from large users. The report is expected to provide a serious reality check to the projections that developers and utilities make about future data center growth.
The Wall Street Journal
(January 6, 2026)
Power-hungry data centers risk pushing parts of the U.S. power grid toward failure. Some technology companies are fighting a potential solution: disconnecting the data centers from the grid when electricity is in short supply. Across the U.S., tensions are mounting as companies including Google, Amazon.com and Microsoft debate with utility executives whether their electricity needs can be met without causing blackouts during times of extreme demand. Power officials have been raising concerns that the grid isn’t equipped to handle the sheer number of data centers tech companies are seeking to build.
Capital B
(January 6, 2026)
This specific project in Colleton County would be one of the largest in the South, and only came to the area after developers tried — and failed — to build a similar campus in a predominantly white county in Georgia. Black imagined a world where the generational rituals of rural life — raising livestock, growing food, and fishing — would cease to exist because of the proposed nine data centers and two substations that would replace woods and wetlands. “All too often, these polluting industries and questionable zoning decisions land in Black and brown communities, places that are least empowered and have already carried the burden of past pollution,” he said.
News From The States
(January 6, 2026)
Twiggs County (Georgia) commissioners recently approved a massive data center project, sparking a legal battle and deepening distrust between citizens and their elected officials in the rural middle Georgia community. The decision was made despite vocal opposition aired at a contentious public hearing and accusations that the process was improperly rushed to bypass a state review that was at the time paused.
The Washington Post
(January 6, 2026)
The EPA aims to push its rules changes into court as fast as possible to cement the administration’s agenda with final judgments before Trump leaves office.
Canary Media
(January 5, 2026)
The 9.1-megawatt Yeoman Solar Project in Illinois, which went online last month, can provide energy for about 1,000 households, as well as the Waukegan school district, which owns the land. Residents who subscribe to get energy from the solar farm are guaranteed to see savings on their energy bills, under a state program incentivizing solar in low-income areas.
AP News
(January 2, 2026)
Tools that power artificial intelligence devour energy. But attempts to shield regular Californians from footing the bill in 2025 ended with a law requiring regulators to write a report about the issue by 2027. If that sounds pretty watered down, it is. Efforts to regulate the energy usage of data centers — the beating heart of AI — ran headlong into Big Tech, business groups and the governor. That’s not surprising given that California is increasingly dependent on big tech for state revenue: A handful of companies pay upwards of $5 billion just on income tax withholding.
Latitude Media
(January 6, 2026)
Global data center capacity could reach 200 gigawatts by 2030, nearly doubling in just five years... such rapid growth would require an estimated $3 trillion of investment, including in real estate and IT equipment. But the boom isn’t inevitable. Data center developers face a number of risks, including grid limitations, construction delays, and community opposition.
