Tenaska Developer Continues to Push for Power Plant

Posted on by Rob McGinnis


This text was taken from an email alert sent out on February 17, 2026. Sign up for email alerts →

Steam rises out from the existing, operational Tenaska gas plant, indicating that gas power combustion is occurring and harmful pollutants are being spread. Video by Hugh Kenny/PEC.

Dear Supporter,

The impacts of data centers continue to spread even where data centers are not developed. Last week in Fauquier County, a data center developer applied for approval of an onsite primary power production plant, including 13 gas turbines. And next week, discussion about the second Tenaska gas plant proposal in Fluvanna County will continue.

Since the email you received from us in January, the Fluvanna County Planning Commission voted that the gas plant failed to meet the threshold of  “Substantial Accord” with the county’s Comprehensive Plan. Tenaska has appealed this decision. There are now two actions in front of the Planning Commission Tuesday, Feb. 24. Considering the known health and environmental impacts to the surrounding community (detailed below), we urge community members and the Planning Commission to vote no on granting the Special Use Permit and reject the Tenaska gas plant. 

Fluvanna County Planning Commission Special Meeting
Tuesday, Feb. 24 @ 7 p.m.
Carysbrook Performing Arts Center
8880 James Madison Hwy, Fork Union, Va

Reject the Gas Plant

The Fluvanna County Planning Commission is reviewing two items at their Tuesday, Feb. 24 meeting. We urge you to use this form to ask Commissioners to reject the Special Use Permit, as this will only seek to make a gas plant in Fluvanna County easier to happen.

  • Stack Height: The Planning Commission will discuss the applicant’s proposal to amend the county code of Fluvanna to allow for higher height regulations for power production plants.
  • Special Use Permit: The Planning Commission will discuss allowing the development of a gas generation plant in Fluvanna County, brought by Expedition Generation Holdings, LLC (Tenaska’s parent company). 
    • PEC position: Job creation and tax revenue do not balance out the overwhelming health and environmental impacts that a second gas plant will create for over four million people in the region.

While the Board of Supervisors won’t take up Tenaska’s appeal of the Planning Commission’s finding that the proposal is not in “Substantial Accord” with the Comprehensive Plan until March 18, these action items reflect an ongoing commitment by the applicant to push ahead despite strong opposition.

Significant and Deadly Health Impacts are Clear

Colors show the modeled increase in average annual PM2.5 (µg/m³), fine particulate matter, summarized as the population-weighted mean within each Census tract. Blue dot is the location of the proposed Tenaska gas plant in Fluvanna County. Map via SELC.

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) commissioned an independent study by the Dominici Lab at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to examine the impacts of adding a second gas plant to this region.

The Harvard study indicates that the impacts from the gas plant include:

  • 4+ million people would experience increased air pollution ranging from Charlottesville and eastern Albemarle to east of Richmond, with significant impacts to Fluvanna County residents proximate to the existing and proposed gas plant including the Lake Monticello and Palmyra areas.
  • Increased risk of health impacts, including heart attacks, strokes, asthma attacks, pneumonia, and premature death due to fine particle matter exposure. 
  • Significant disruption to rural communities and conservation efforts from expansion of industrial usage. Tenaska’s proposal to conserve acreage near the existing and proposed gas plants does not make up for its adverse impacts. 

Energy from Tenaska would potentially be transmitted to data centers via the proposed 765kV transmission line. To access the interactive map of the transmission line, scroll to the top of the page and click on “Continue as a Guest”. Map via ValleyLink.

This second Tenaska gas plant proposal is not happening in a vacuum. Across the state, seven proposals for new gas plants undermine the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) goals. One of these proposals, in Chesterfield, was approved by the State Corporation Commission last November despite significant community opposition. And a large-scale on-site gas generation facility was proposed in Fauquier County by a data center campus developer. The Planning Commission meeting for that gas plant is this Thursday, Feb. 19.

Tenaska states that a new Fluvanna plant could power up to 1.5 million homes, but it’s more likely that the energy produced by this plant, potentially transmitted on the proposed transmission line that extends through Fluvanna County from Culpeper County south to Lynchburg, will be used to provide energy to power-hungry data centers in central and northern Virginia — which have been approved and built without sufficient energy supply to power them. That proposed transmission line will be approximately 115 miles of 765-kV transmission line between Campbell County and Culpeper County and will be the first-ever 765kV line of such enormous size in Central Virginia.

While Fluvanna County is outside of PEC’s nine-county service region, environmental impacts do not stop at county lines. Pollution from this gas plant is expected to spread to Charlottesville and eastern Albemarle County, including the communities of Esmont, Porters, Scottsville, and Keswick, and as far as Lousia, Goochland, Powhatan, Cumberland, and Chesterfield.

Please email the Fluvanna County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors and urge them to vote no on the Tenaska gas plant. You can also show up in person to the Planning Commission meeting Tuesday, Feb. 24.

Reject the Gas Plant

Thank you!

Rob McGinnis, PLA FASLA
Senior Land Use Field Representative
Albemarle & Greene Counties
[email protected]
(434) 962-9110