This text was taken from an email alert sent out on June 18, 2026. Sign up for email alerts →
Dear Supporter,
Since our last email, we’ve been keeping a close eye on the proposed Page-Sperryville transmission line rebuild project, a roughly 14-mile long, 138-kilovolt (kV) transmission line stretching from Luray in Page County to Sperryville in Rappahannock County.
As stated in our webpage on the project, while this line needs replacing for basic safety and functionality updates, FirstEnergy’s lack of transparency and engagement with the community on important aspects of the project – including the visual impacts of much taller poles, local impacts of the construction work, and potential future transmission expansion through Rappahannock – has raised serious concerns.
FirstEnergy and Rappahannock Electric Coop will give the Board of Supervisors an update on the project at the regular, daytime supervisors’ meeting on Monday, July 6 at 2 p.m. Though this is not a hearing, the meeting will feature a public forum where citizens can raise questions and present concerns before the board. You can also submit questions or comments to the board ahead of time so that supervisors may ask FirstEnergy on your behalf.
And please attend the July 6 meeting!
We asked for transparency and got a smokescreen
It may be necessary to replace out-of-date infrastructure to ensure that residents in Page and Rappahannock counties have reliable power. However, we want to ensure that all transmission projects are designed to minimize or avoid negative impacts to people, the environment, and community resources.
We have encouraged FirstEnergy to share more information about how it plans its transmission lines and how the rebuilt line will look, which could be shared with the community to facilitate further discussion and allay potential concerns. In the past, we have found that utility companies – even Dominion – often see the benefit of discussing key issues, such as important viewsheds or historic resources, during the planning process to mitigate or avoid conflicts before filing with the State Corporation Commission (SCC) for approval.
Unfortunately, representatives from FirstEnergy have so far refused to provide substantive answers to our repeated requests for planning details, responding only by saying, “[this information] will be available when our application is made to the SCC.”
One key piece of information we have repeatedly asked for is a cost estimate for undergrounding a small section of the line where it crosses U.S. Route 211 at the entrance to historic Sperryville. FirstEnergy has only said that “putting the line underground would greatly increase costs and could create more impacts for landowners.”
However, undergrounding this section of the line would significantly reduce the visual impact of the Page-Sperryville line and would honor the millions of dollars of private and public funding that have been invested in protecting the rural beauty of Rappahannock and Sperryville as a gateway to Shenandoah National Park. We recognize that undergrounding the entire 14-mile-long line is likely not feasible, but we feel it is important to explore whether this small, but highly-visible section could be undergrounded out of concern for the community and to foster trust
FirstEnergy has also avoided our request for a mediated Q&A with the community, claiming it has already conducted sufficient public outreach with an open house in Sperryville and by responding to requests for information from residents. In neither case has FirstEnergy provided detailed information about the project, and the utility appears to be avoiding opportunities for its information to be critiqued or fact-checked by the public. This is why it’s important to attend the Board of Supervisors update meeting on July 6 and ask questions.
What you can do
The Rappahannock Board of Supervisors also wants answers from FirstEnergy, which is why it has requested the update on July 6. We encourage you to submit questions and concerns to the Board and come to the meeting to show FirstEnergy that the community is paying close attention to this project.
We anticipate FirstEnergy will file the project with the SCC this summer. The SCC will then review it and hold its own public hearing, at which time residents can share their concerns.
A Note About Data Centers
PEC has been leading the charge for data center regulation and mitigation in Virginia for years. Although we acknowledge that data centers are a reality of a digital age, Virginia’s unchecked data center growth has led to rising energy costs, new transmission lines, and impacts to our natural resources and quality of life for many residents of the commonwealth.
The Rappahannock County Code of Ordinances states that “any use not expressly indicated as a permitted use in a separate zoning district is prohibited,” effectively banning data centers. We have advised the county not to change its ordinance to explicitly ban data centers, as we consider it unnecessary and a move that could have unintended consequences, such as making it easier for future boards to reverse the ban.
We believe Rappahannock is more likely to be impacted by transmission lines being built to serve data centers than by data center development itself. The county lacks the fiber infrastructure needed by hyperscale facilities and is not actively incentivizing data center development, among other reasons. Last year, we advised the county to tighten its language regarding substations, which it did.
However, there is an opportunity to weigh in right now on Virginia’s runaway data center growth: the Virginia General Assembly is currently debating how to regulate this industry, including whether to remove the tax exemption for data centers in Virginia.
Critical moment to weigh in: Please call and/or send a letter to your delegate, senator, and Governor Spanberger and tell them to pause new data center approvals and end the $1.9 billion tax exemption before they finalize the budget.
Please share this email with anyone you think would be interested and encourage them to sign up for our alerts to stay up-to-date on the latest developments in Rappahannock County.
Thank you for your engagement on important issues in your community. Please email me with any questions.
Sincerely,
Sarah Parmelee
Land Use Field Representative
Culpeper County
[email protected]
(540) 347-2334 ext. 7045
