A weekly news digest of stories that matter – from land use and conservation to climate and energy – always informative and never behind a paywall. If you like what you read, please consider supporting the PEC.
Rappahannock League for Environmental Protection
(July 23, 2025)
RLEP invites you to hear from PEC President Chris Miller about the explosive data center boom in Northern Virginia and its potentially significant impact on Rappahannock County.
Rappahannock County Library, 4 Library Road, Washington, Wednesday July 30, 7:00 to 8:00 pm.
The Hill
(July 23, 2025)
The plan, which seeks to remove what the Trump administration deems as “onerous” regulations at both the federal and state level, includes limiting funding to states over their AI rules and tasking the FCC with evaluating whether certain state AI regulations interfere with its mandate.
The Boston Globe
(July 23, 2025)
At an event organized by Massachusetts Senator Edward Markey, environmental advocates from Indiana, Virginia, Tennessee, and other states said data centers had driven up the cost of electricity for consumers and increased air and water pollution.
PEC's Director of Land Use, Julie Bolthouse, is featured in this piece.
CBS 19 News
(July 23, 2025)
As major tech companies set their sights on rural land for massive data campuses, Madison County leaders say they’re being deliberate — and wary — about what comes next.
This news clip features PEC's President Chris Miller and Senior Land Use Field Representative for Albemarle & Greene counties, Rob McGinnis.
Latitude Media
(July 22, 2025)
“Is grandma subsidizing Google?” That’s what a reporter asked New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on a Friday broadcast on New York City’s public radio station WNYC. The reporter, Nancy Solomon, reiterated the question: “Are ratepayers subsidizing these big AI plans?”
Bloomberg
(July 22, 2025)
PJM is becoming a test case for AI’s voracious energy needs. Already, supplies have gotten so tight that costs in an annual auction held last year to procure capacity rose to a record $14.7 billion. The results of the next auction, which are scheduled to be released nest week – which are expected to show capacity prices match or exceed all-time highs – are an indicator of what the AI boom will cost consumers as competition increases for the scant spare capacity on the grid.
The New York Times
(July 22, 2025)
The plan would eliminate the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse-gas emissions threaten human life by dangerously warming the planet.
PBS
(July 22, 2025)
Electricity bills for ratepayers across a large swath of the Mid-Atlantic will rise again as a result of a process the regional grid operator uses to guarantee future electricity supply during the hottest and coldest days of the year. Referred to as a “capacity auction,” the results reflect the costs of paying power plants to commit to future electricity production that is then paid by the electric utilities and, ultimately, passed onto consumers.
Canary Media
(July 18, 2025)
Advocates urged the State Corporation Commission to reject Dominion’s plan outright. Instead, the panel OK’d the resource plan, calling it merely “legally sufficient” and directing Dominion to change its approach for its next forecast. The accepted plan stops six years shy of 2045, the year by which Dominion is supposed to generate 100% carbon-free electricity.
The New York Times
(July 18, 2025)
The E.P.A.’s science office provides the independent research that underpins nearly all the agency’s policies and regulations. Its research has often justified stricter environmental rules, prompting pushback from chemical manufacturers and other industries.
Canary Media
(July 15, 2025)
It’s the latest setback for the longstanding REAP program, casting uncertainty over the future of a resource that helps farmers save on energy and install solar.
The New York Times
(July 14, 2025)
As tech giants like Meta build data centers in the area, the situation has become so dire that Newton County (East of Atlanta) is on track to be in a water deficit by 2030, according to a report last year. If the local water authority cannot upgrade its facilities, residents could be forced to ration water. In the next two years, water rates are set to increase 33 percent
WHRO
(July 24, 2025)
Gov. Glenn Youngkin and other leaders have voiced concerns about PJM, the mid-Atlantic region’s “air traffic control” for electricity, as power prices reached a record high this week.
Inside Climate News
(July 23, 2025)
The bipartisan coalition of state leaders want more say in filling two empty board seats as they struggle with growing energy demand, a pressure felt most acutely in Virginia, the epicenter of data center growth.
Maryland Matters
(July 23, 2025)
Between 2024 and 2025, data center power usage accounted for $9 billion, or 174%, of increased power costs, a June report by Monitoring Analytics, an external market monitor for PJM Interconnection, found.
The Swamp
(July 21, 2025)
While Europe and Asia invest in sodium-ion batteries and micro nuclear reactors, U.S. regulators stall innovation—and Marylanders foot the bill.
WYPR
(July 16, 2025)
PSEG, the company that plans to build a controversial power line known as the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project, has filed an additional lawsuit in U.S. District Court against nearly 200 landowners saying it needs access to the private land so it can survey the property.
60 Minutes
(July 6, 2025)
Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay is slowly disappearing as sea rises and erosion hits the shoreline. The population has dwindled, but the people still living there say they’re there to stay.
C-Ville.com
(July 23, 2025)
Under the new regulations, “accessory” energy facilities are allowed in any zoning district without permission, as long as the installations are smaller than 500 square feet. In the rural area, solar installations could be on as much as 21 acres without getting legislative approval, unless more than 10 acres of forest or prime farmland would be disturbed. There is a height limit of 20 feet.
Information Charlottesville
(July 22, 2025)
Opponents worry the plan proposes significant changes to the County's zoning, to its land use and growth management policy and to its regulatory structure without the benefit of public hearings.
Charlottesville Tomorrow
(July 22, 2025)
The plaintiffs, a group of residents who own property in some of the city neighborhoods with the highest property values, claimed that the city did not follow the law in creating the new ordinance.
Virginia Mercury
(July 23, 2025)
Dulles International Airport is laying the groundwork for a sweeping 25-year overhaul that includes new hotels, office and retail space, and a fifth runway that could bring more air traffic — and more noise — to nearby neighborhoods.
Fox Business
(July 23, 2025)
FOX Business' Lauren Simonetti tours Equinix's data center in Ashburn, Virginia and speaks with Chief Business Officer Jon Lin about the center's capabilities.
Blue Ridge Leader
(July 21, 2025)
This year’s program will run to Aug. 15 to give homeowners more time to take advantage of the 30% federal solar tax credit due to expire at the end of the year. In addition to connecting participants to information about financial incentives available for solar systems, the program offers free satellite solar assessments, streamlined installation and discounted pricing on solar systems from vetted installers.
Culpeper Star-Exponent
(July 22, 2025)
Family owned, operated and cultivated in Rappahannock County since the 1980s, Gray Ghost Winery, was awarded Adieu 96 points and “Best of Class” in the Late Harvest dessert wine category for the second year in a row.
Prince William Times
(July 21, 2025)
The commission voted 4-3 in favor of the board of supervisors approving a data center of up to 577,000 square feet – 1 of 3 projects sought by Juneteenth donor Chuck Kuhn. If approved, the building would be among the largest data centers in the county.
Prince William Times
(July 17, 2025)
Work is underway for a development that will include up to 1,000 new townhomes, a county park and shopping center on 145 acres of agricultural land, requiring a transformation of the Prince William Parkway and Minnieville Road intersection.
WTOP News
(July 23, 2025)
The D.C. region knocked Los Angeles off its throne to claim the top spot, and did that with an average commute of 33.4 minutes and traffic congestion in the region which lasts 6 hours and 35 minutes.
Prince William Living
(July 23, 2025)
The event is a focused effort to control the growing population of the invasive northern snakehead fish along the Occoquan River, while also encouraging conservation awareness and responsible recreational angling.
WTOP News
(July 21, 2025)
The sweeping layoffs impacting federal government and contracting jobs is hitting the D.C. region’s job market particularly hard, with concerns that the unemployment rate in Northern Virginia will reach levels not seen since the pandemic. A new report states there should be more focus on luring AI and quantum computing, as well as other tech opportunities, and also recommends expanding the region’s energy capacity.
Cardinal News
(July 24, 2025)
The essence of the city’s concern seems to be the Google data center will use so much water that it might foreclose other economic development opportunities and that the city doesn’t trust Botetourt County to live up to its promise to replace that water.
The Northern Virginia Daily
(July 23, 2025)
The New Market Town Council appeared to hold firm in its decision not to support a proposed historic preservation easement near Shirley’s Hill, reaffirming a reluctance to cede commercially zoned land to permanent conservation.
Daily News-Record
(July 22, 2025)
Although the peaches you buy from Ryan’s Fruit Market may have been picked just yesterday, there’s a whole lot of history behind them. The market sits on a piece of land outside Timberville that was settled by Patrick Ryan’s family in 1780, after an ancestor received it as a reward for serving as an army commander in the Revolutionary War.
Royal Examiner
(July 17, 2025)
Kopishke highlighted the importance of preparedness on the part of commissioners, encouraging them to review the draft ahead of their first official discussion on August 6.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(July 23, 2025)
The areas off Route 33 – one of the few economic development zones remaining in Hanover – is set to become a retail and dining area, with the larger acreage off the road to house data centers or “clean manufacturing.”
Engage Louisa
(July 23, 2025)
AWS was seeking permission to build up to 7.2 million square feet of data center buildings and seven substations on 1,370 acres north of Jefferson Highway (Route 33) adjacent to the reservoir. Had it been approved, the campus would’ve been the tech giant’s third in the county’s Technology Overlay District (TOD).
VPM
(July 22, 2025)
Sedimentation in the Appomattox has long been an issue. The Norfolk District of the US Army Corps of Engineers sought to address it as far back as the 1870s, when the river was used as a major shipping passage. A second channel was built in the early 1920s to reduce sediment flows, but the construction of I-95 has only contributed to the problem.
Roanoker
(July 22, 2025)
The non-profit brings local, fresh, nutrient-dense food to communities across Roanoke making shopping for local food easier than ever, with discounts available for participants of SNAP, WIC and Medicaid, multiple payment options available, a variety of products on the shelves and convenient hours and location.
Henrico Citizen
(July 22, 2025)
The 3.2-mile paved New Market Heights Trail will link Deep Bottom Park with Four Mile Creek Park at New Market Road, connecting to the existing Four Mile Creek trailhead of the Virginia Capital Trail there. Officials also intend to create wetland mitigation bank concept at Varina site.
WFXR
(July 21, 2025)
Originally placed on the endangered list in 1989, the Roanoke logperch was found in only 14 streams. By 2019, the species occupied 31 streams, more than doubling its range. Efforts included removing multiple obsolete dams and barriers in Virginia and North Carolina, allowing hundreds of miles of Roanoke logperch habitat to reconnect.
13 News Now
(July 18, 2025)
Coastal wetlands help fight flooding and protect wildlife. Local environmental organizations are working to restore what’s been lost and prevent more damage.
Fredericksburg Free Press
(July 17, 2025)
Any data center developer without an application on file with the Spotsylvania County Planning and Zoning Department, may face water concerns in the future – the county is at capacity for reusable water based on data center projects that are approved or awaiting approval from the county.
WTOP News
(July 12, 2025)
Blue catfish are an invasive species which feed on environmentally and economically important native species, like blue crabs, striped bass and Atlantic menhaden. The Mitigation Action and Watermen Support Act, or MAWS Act, is a pilot program to collect data that would eventually create a new market for the Chesapeake Bay blue catfish in the pet food industry.
Bay Journal
(July 11, 2025)
Summer is here, and that means the peak of hummingbird season in the Chesapeake Bay region. Hummingbirds comprise the world’s third largest avian family (Trochilidae), and all 360-plus species are found only in the Americas.
The Winchester Star
(July 3, 2025)
Weinmann and Branham are amateur preservationists with a passion for honoring the dead. When they find a neglected family cemetery and receive permission to work there, they do so of their own accord and do not accept payment.
Solar Power World
(July 23, 2025)
At issue is the “minimum bill” — a mandatory charge customers must pay to participate in shared solar — which has made the economic value proposition for customers untenable unless they qualify as low-income and are exempt.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(July 23, 2025)
State and local lawmakers grapple with how to regulate a fast-growing industry that boosts tax revenues for local governments but raises concerns – and electricity prices – for communities.
12 On Your Side
(July 22, 2025)
While cutbacks at the federal level are making it harder for any state to plan future projects, experts also believe we need to rethink the ‘100 year flood’ before planning ahead.
13 News Now
(July 22, 2025)
The foundation said in a Tuesday announcement that the funding was directly tied to coastal Virginia’s economy, fisheries and environment.
Cardinal News
(July 22, 2025)
One of the sectors the report says Northern Virginia should pursue is clean energy, yet the Trump administration has tried to shut down the growth in that sector. Trump has banned most offshore wind development, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act does away with many of the tax incentives that have powered the growth of clean energy.
Bacon's Rebellion
(July 21, 2025)
In rural Virginia, a struggle is playing out as utility scale solar seeks to establish a foothold in Virginia. But their industrial developments are causing angst in Virginia’s farm belt and there’s no easy answer.
Virginia Tech News
(July 21, 2025)
Virginia’s forests were nearly depleted by the end of the 19th century. Widespread logging to supply fuel for iron furnaces and steam generators in the northeastern United States and the United Kingdom left the landscape bare. Recognizing the need for sustainable forest management, Virginia established an agricultural research station in Blacksburg in 1886, laying the groundwork for what would become the university’s forestry program.
Prince William Times
(July 20, 2025)
In this warming climate and suburbanized landscape, small mammals and rodents are thriving, creating what one expert calls a “tick buffet.” Virginia’s environment is so appealing that tick species historically confined to other regions of the continent have started encroaching.
Data Center Knowledge
(July 18, 2025)
Twenty metro areas now account for 62% of the world’s hyperscale data center capacity, with Northern Virginia and the Greater Beijing area representing 20% of the global total. Fourteen of the top 20 metro markets are in the U.S., with only one European market – Dublin – in the top 20.
Environmental Health News
(July 18, 2025)
Virginia’s electricity grid is under added pressure from a booming data center industry, which risks locking in high emissions unless the region transitions to clean, efficient power. As federal policy shifts, these choices will have enduring impacts on energy prices, insurance rates, and the pace of climate disruption.
Fredericksburg Free Press
(July 13, 2025)
Reedville-based Omega Protein, the main beneficiary of menhaden fishing in Virginia, has given $955,783 to Virginia political campaigns since 1996, according to a nonprofit that tracks money in politics.
Department of Energy
(July 24, 2025)
The report predicts a 100x increase in power outages by 2030 with planned plant retirements. The average “loss of load hours” is currently 8.1 hours p.a. and could jump to 817 hours p.a. in 2030. 104 GW of firm power plants will be retiring by 2030; only 22 GW of firm baseload replacement generation is planned.
Virginia Mercury
(July 23, 2025)
Seventy-three members of Congress, led by U.S. Reps. Jennifer McClellan, D-VA, and Paul Tonko, D-NY, wrote to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin to stop the roll back of Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS).
E&E News
(July 22, 2025)
The move to clamp down on renewable projects through the Interior Department came as Trump dismantled federal policies aimed at expanding wind and solar power, rolled back clean energy tax credits provided in the Inflation Reduction Act, and ended new wind leases on federal lands.
Semafor
(July 22, 2025)
While the One Big Beautiful Bill Act significantly pared back tax incentives for wind, solar, and electric vehicles, energy storage projects can still qualify for Biden-era tax credits as long as they’re under construction before 2034.
E&E News
(July 21, 2025)
The move comes at a time when Republicans and Democrats alike are pursuing a nuclear expansion, with Trump aiming to quadruple nuclear power capacity by 2050. It also comes amid a major shakeup at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with administration officials directing the agency to apply minimal scrutiny in reviewing reactors backed by the departments of Energy or Defense.
The Wall Street Journal
(July 18, 2025)
A new bill aims to boost building of accessory dwelling units – ADUs – in an effort to tackle the housing shortage. Small and studio-style, ADUs can supplement an existing home in the backyard, garage or basement.
Strong Towns
(July 17, 2025)
A discussion on the importance of nature in urban resilience and the benefits of community gardening, from access to healthy food to community building and mental health improvement; and how a permaculture design philosophy can help cities become more resilient.
The Washington Post
(July 14, 2025)
Beyond public health, air quality protections help preserve the scenic vistas that define the country’s national parks. Since 1999, the Environmental Protection Agency has required states to reduce human-caused “visibility impairments” in national parks and wilderness areas. While haze levels have declined in most parks in the past quarter century, some sources of pollution have proved difficult to tackle. And in parts of the country, more intense wildfires are threatening to reverse the trend.
Data Center Dynamics
(July 11, 2025)
The agreement requires new data center customers to pay for a minimum of 85 percent of the energy they say they need each month, even if they use less, to cover the cost of infrastructure required to bring electricity to those facilities.
Boston Globe
(July 24, 2025)
For nearly two decades, no one had spotted the world’s smallest-known snake – some scientists worried that the Barbados threadsnake had become extinct
Better Offline (podcast)
(July 23, 2025)
Host Ed Zitron walks you through how the US stock market rests on the back of GPU sales, and how a lack of any real business returns spells doom for the AI bubble long-term.
BBC
(July 23, 2025)
A landmark decision cleared the way for countries to sue each other over climate change, including over historic emissions of planet-warming gases. But the judge at the International Court of Justice in the Hague said untangling who caused which part of climate change could be difficult. Though the ruling is non-binding, legal experts say it could have wide-ranging consequences.
ABC 8 News
(July 22, 2025)
Last year, 74% of the growth in electricity generated worldwide was from wind, solar and other green sources, according to the U.N.’s multiagency report. It found that 92.5% of all new electricity capacity added to the grid worldwide in that time period came from renewables. Sales of electric vehicles are also up, from 500,000 in 2015 to more than 17 million in 2024.
Canary Media
(July 22, 2025)
Solar companies in Australia can quote, sell, and install a 7-kilowatt-hour solar system with a 7 kilowatt-hour battery for about $14,000 in a matter of days. In the U.S., that same system costs about $36,000, and getting permits and interconnections can take months — long enough to kill a fair number of installs before they can be completed.
The Washington Post
(July 21, 2025)
Europe’s top oil producer has backed a project aiming to capture carbon dioxide from European factories and bury it beneath the North Sea.
