Lauren Shernoff
- Loudoun County Public Schools Outlines Threat Assessment Enhancements
Loudoun County Public Schools has presented details on plans to introduce a threat assessment coordinator as part of school safety improvements.
- Loudoun County Data Examines Teacher Pay Growth Versus CPI
Loudoun County Public Schools released data comparing teacher average salary growth to Consumer Price Index trends in a recent presentation.
- Dominion Seeks SCC Blessing for Valley Link Affiliates as FERC Weighs 11.4% ROE Incentives
RICHMOND — Dominion Energy is asking Virginia regulators to bless affiliate contracts that would let shell companies carry a
- Mike Turner Strategy: Require Onsite Microgrids, Green Business Zone With Up to 50% Tax Rebate — Or Keep Building 500 kV Lattices
Ashburn supervisor’s paradigm paper says Loudoun’s grid cannot keep pace; he floats mandatory carbon-net-zero microgrids, SMRs, and a Green Business Development Zone sweetened with rebates against ~$666M in data-center BPPT.
- Virginia Data Centers Point Past 60 GW as Bills, Water, and Diesel Costs Mount
Statewide impact study cites ~1,300 possible facilities, Dominion bill path toward $315, Loudoun’s billion-plus gallons, 8,910 generators, and PJM transmission skewed to data-center load under Democrat-era growth policy.
- Loudoun Democrats Re-Approve Aspen Substation — Sell It as Oxygen-Machine Reliability After Data-Center Boom
After briefly rescinding approval, the Democrat-majority board restores Aspen amid talk of 95 existing or proposed substations; Umstattd and Randall frame wires as life-safety while critics say homes had power before 200 data centers.
- Average Residential Bills Toward $315 by 2039 as Data-Center Load Dominates
Unconstrained Demand cites Dominion figures taking typical residential bills from about $142.77 now to $315.25 by 2039 — primarily on data-center sector energy needs — while JLARC separately pegs $14–$37 monthly generation and transmission cost pressure by 2040.
- From Marye’s Transmission Study to the 2013 Amendment — Utilities Still Take Land for Data Center Load
RICHMOND — Virginia’s modern property-rights constitution did not begin with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 Kelo decision.
- UCS: Data-Center Grid Hookups Put $4.3B on PJM Customers in 2024 — Virginia Alone Near $2B
Union of Concerned Scientists brief says transmission-level campus taps are socialized through FERC and state rates; Virginia’s 60 tracked projects total about $1.988 billion under the rules Democrat-era load growth exploited.
- Loudoun’s Turning Point: First 5–4 Data-Center Denial in 2024, Scaled 6–3 Pass, Then March 18 End of Open By-Right
Turner’s timeline traces Democrat-board politics from the first major denial of a 2.9M sq ft project, to a 1.3M by-right comeback, to the 7–2 March 18, 2025 vote ending open by-right — with grandfathering still attached.
- Loudoun: 55% of Cited Data Centers Sit Within 200 Feet of Homes
Unconstrained Demand’s Fairfax proximity stats — 55% within 200 feet, 70% within 500 feet — show how Democrat land-use permissions put industrial campuses into residential buffers statewide.
- Central Virginia Lined Up for 290+ Data Centers — Spreading Loudoun’s Fight Down the I-95 Corridor
Unconstrained Demand says Central Virginia expects 290-plus campuses that would rival Northern Virginia’s hubs, with statewide tallies near 1,300 facilities and 390 million square feet as Democrat recruitment goes statewide.
- Virginia’s Data-Center Boom Runs on Water and Diesel: Loudoun’s Billion Gallons and 8,910 Generators
Unconstrained Demand tallies Loudoun data centers above 1 billion gallons of water in 2023, statewide use above 2.1 billion, and 8,910 mostly Tier 2 diesel generators permitted for up to 500 hours a year.
- Abigail Spanberger Signs Executive Order 22 on Data Center Accountability and AI Task Force
Governor Abigail Spanberger’s Executive Order 22 and 2027 legislative slate target NDAs, local approval for large loads, noise and backup power, and an AI task force—without a statewide moratorium.
- Virginia Warned in 1999 That Power-Line Easements Leave Landowners Paying for Residue Damage
RICHMOND — Long before Data Center Alley turned Northern Virginia into a magnet for 500 kV and 765 kV corridors, the General Assembly already knew what transmission easements do to private land.
- Meeting Unconstrained Virginia Data-Center Power Demand Will Be “Very Difficult” — Households Face Rising System Costs
December 2024 JLARC Report 598 finds unconstrained demand could double Virginia power need in a decade, new build rates look unachievable, and Dominion residential customers could see $14–$37 more per month in generation and transmission costs by 2040.
- Loudoun’s Substation Swarm: 95 Existing or Proposed, 30–40 More Coming — Every Data-Center Vote Becomes a Wires Vote
County presentations tied to Aspen put Loudoun near a hundred substations with dozens more planned; Democrat supervisors admit approving a campus means approving the substation and line that follow.
- Loudoun Votes: Democrat Board Ends Open By-Right Data Centers — After 9–0 Use Expansion and 5–4 Grandfathering
Ghiorzi hearing notes and Granicus timestamps show a 7–2 main motion, a failed 5–4 attempt to kill administrative grandfathering, a 9–0 add-data-center use on 1972–1993 lots, and Briskman’s 41M / 61M sq ft warning.
- Spanberger presents slate of data center regulation proposals, puts first directives in motion
Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed Executive Order 22 on Friday, Sept. 18 to kick off her data center regulation package.
- Mike Turner 2026 Deck: Loudoun Data-Center Load Hit 5.33 GW — Planned Adds Still Short of 14–20 GW Path
Ashburn supervisor’s June 15, 2026 paradigm slides and strategy paper put 53M sq ft built, 60M in pipeline, and microgrid/SMR/HVDC scenarios against a Democrat-board boom that March 18 only partly closed.
- Data-Center Growth Adds Tens of Billions to Plan NPV vs “No Data Center Growth”
SCC-directed 2024 IRP supplement (PUR-2024-00184) shows portfolio NPVs about $100.2–$103.3 billion with data-center growth versus about $77.2–$80.9 billion when data-center load growth is frozen.
- Valley Link’s 765 kV Northern Line Is PATH Reborn — Aimed at Loudoun Data Centers, Critics Say
RICHMOND / LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — A roughly 260-mile, 765-kilovolt transmission line from West Virginia into Maryland — the northern spine of PJM’s Valley Link portfolio — is being pitched as new reliability steel.
- Kimley-Horn to Loudoun: Data-Center Pipeline Implies ~8,190 MW — More Transmission Than PJM Had Approved
County-commissioned September 2024 due diligence tallies ~117 pipeline buildings at ~70 MW each and urges corridor mapping, undergrounding, collocation, and reconductoring as Democrat-led Loudoun faces the grid gap it helped create.
- Western Loudoun Push: One Underground HVDC Instead of MARL and Valley Link North Overhead
LOVETTSVILLE, Va. — Theresa Ghiorzi and a JotForm petition urge Loudoun, Frederick, and Clarke officials to back a single underground HVDC alternative to FirstEnergy’s MARL/Gore–Doubs–Goose Creek 500 kV and Valley Link North 765 kV lines into Data Center Alley.
- Fast-Track Large-Load Queue Is Not in the Public Interest — Preferential Power for Speculative Data Centers
RICHMOND — In a June 30, 2026 brief in PUR-2026-00011, Theresa Ghiorzi tells the SCC a paid ‘fast-track’ interconnection preference for large loads fails Virginia’s public-interest and public-use tests, citing Norfolk Southern (2025) and Dominion’s own ~70 GW speculative queue.
- Theresa Ghiorzi Moves to Dismiss Golden-Mars, Citing Loudoun Route Rigging and Untallied Homeowner Takings
RICHMOND / LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — In PUR-2025-00056, Theresa Ghiorzi asks the SCC to dismiss Dominion’s Golden-Mars 500/230 kV application, restart siting de novo, finish Line #514 first, and stop connecting high-demand customers until Data Center Alley load drops below NERC-violation thresholds.
- Ghiorzi Family Tells SCC to Reject Dominion’s IRP: Co-Locate Generation or Make Data Centers Pay for Underground HVDC
LOVETTSVILLE, Va. — In April 2025 comments on Dominion’s 2024 Integrated Resource Plan (PUR-2024-00184), Theresa Ghiorzi and relatives urge the SCC to reject the plan, require campus co-located baseload, and stop socializing ‘multi-driver’ 500/765 kV extension cords from West Virginia coal across 13 PJM states.
- Dominion’s SCC Filing: 70 GW of Large-Load Requests — Nearly Triple the DOM Zone Peak — Feed the Transmission Fight
RICHMOND — Dominion Energy Virginia’s PUR-2026-00011 large-load connection queue application tells the State Corporation Commission that about 70,000 MW of data-center-scale delivery-point requests are advancing — nearly triple the Dominion Zone’s 24,678 MW all-time peak — with 2,000–3,000 MW more arriving most months.
- Loudoun Sheriff Issues Letter Clarifying ICE Cooperation Practices
Loudoun County is governed by a nine-member Board of Supervisors that includes Chair At-Large Phyllis Randall, Vice Chair Michael Turner of the Ashburn District, Juli Briskman of the Algonkian District, Sylvia Glass of the Broad Run District, Caleb Kershner of the Catoctin District, Matthew Letourneau of the Dulles District, Kristen Umstattd of the Leesburg District, Laura TeKrony of the Little River District, and Koran Saines of the Sterling District.
- MARL Price Tag Climbs Toward $1.46 Billion After Loudoun Reroute and NextEra Cost Doubling
LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — The Mid-Atlantic Reliability Link corridor into Data Center Alley is getting more expensive — and Loudoun’s own routing politics are part of the reason.
- MARL Power Line Is Generation Delivery for Data Centers, Not Grid Reliability, Filings Argue
LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — The Mid-Atlantic Reliability Link project — the multi-state 500-kilovolt corridor also described as MARL / Gore-Doubs-Goose Creek — is being sold as a reliability upgrade.
- PJM Shortlists Dominion’s Heritage-to-Mosby Underground HVDC as Southern Backbone for Northern Virginia Load
RICHMOND / LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — PJM’s 2025 Window 1 southern-cluster shortlist puts four Dominion +/- 525 kV HVDC variants from Heritage to Mosby — about 185 miles and roughly $4.8–$5.0 billion — against cheaper 765 kV and 500 kV overhead portfolios, with proposal 275 leading incremental transfer into NOVA.
- Data Center Load Is Driving Capacity Costs — and Risk of Blackouts
WASHINGTON / RICHMOND — The Independent Market Monitor for PJM told federal energy regulators that the region’s capacity crisis is not a mystery.
- Line 514 Was Sold as Rusting Towers. Loudoun’s Data Center Alley Needs the Power Anyway.
LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — Before the Golden-Mars 500-kilovolt project became the latest fight at the State Corporation Commission, another line
- Loudoun County Board Approves Temporary Pause on Data Center Applications
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors approved a plan during its September 15, 2026, meeting to temporarily pause final action on data center and electrical substation applications requiring legislative approval.
- Dominion Pitches Fully Underground HVDC Into Loudoun as PJM Answer to Data Center Load
RICHMOND / LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — Dominion Energy Virginia is asking the PJM Board to greenlight a High Voltage Direct Current project the
- Abigail Spanberger Urges Congress to Police Artificial Intelligence Risks to Privacy, Jobs, and Resources
The governor’s September 22 letter to House and Senate leaders seeks federal guardrails as Virginia advances Executive Order 22 and data-center accountability rules.
- Loudoun’s Data Center Loop: Democratic Supervisors Greenlit the Boom. Ratepayers and Homeowners Face the Lines.
LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — Northern Virginia already hosts the densest cluster of data centers on the planet.
- EMF Fear Still Drives Virginia Power-Line Residue Fights as Democrat-Approved Data Centers Need New Steel
RICHMOND / LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — Electromagnetic fields are not a side conversation in Virginia’s transmission boom.
- County Adds Public EV Charging Stations at Cascades Library
Loudoun County has installed new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations for public use at the Cascades Library, 21030 Whitfield Place, Potomac Falls.
- BPA’s 1989 Transmission Review Left EMF Health Risk Unsettled — And Still Echoes in Corridor Fights
PORTLAND / RICHMOND — Decades before Virginia’s data center boom forced new 500 kV and 765 kV corridors onto the Mid-Atlantic map, the
- PJM Market Monitor Warns FERC: New Data-Center Loads Risk Customer Blackouts — Ghiorzi Backs Complaint
Monitoring Analytics’ November 2025 EL26 complaint says PJM is interconnecting large loads it cannot serve reliably; Loudoun’s Theresa Ghiorzi’s December comments tie the docket to Data Center Alley’s Democrat-built demand surge.
- Loudoun County Supervisors Advance 12-Month Pause on New Data Center Applications
Loudoun’s Board of Supervisors voted 7-1-1 to draft a temporary pause on new data-center applications while rewriting local rules, with a final vote expected in October.
- Virginia Department of Health Reports Possible Measles Outbreak in Northern Virginia and Washington D.C.
The James A. Wilding arrival hall at Dulles International Airport.
- Loudoun Supervisors Vote 7-1-1 to Advance Yearlong Data Center Application Pause
Staff must draft a resolution for a final October vote after Chair Randall frames the pause as time to rewrite local rules.
- Loudoun Neighbors Push to Demolish Lowes Island Arson Remains Before Anniversary
Algonkian Supervisor Juli Briskman says county demolition could finish in early October if the private owner does not act first.
- Loudoun Supervisors Advance Proposed Yearlong Pause on New Data Centers
A temporary halt on new applications heads toward a final vote Oct. 13 as neighbors and electrical workers clash over growth.
- Loudoun County to Weigh Temporary Pause on New Data Center Applications
Supervisors will review staff plans for a development freeze while rewriting standards and ending remaining by-right grandfathering.
- Virginia House Bill 47 Aims to Expand Tax Relief for Military and Foreign Service Retirees
House Bill 47, which seeks to broaden state income tax subtractions for retirement benefits earned by uniformed services and United States Foreign Service officers, has been left in the House Finance Committee as the 2026 legislative session progresses.
- Loudoun County to Consider Data Center Pause, Removing By-Right Grandfather Clause
A view of a data center in Loudoun County next to Chick Ford & Ryan Bickel Fields.