Valley Link just bought the farm. Literally. And it did not bother to wait for the county to say yes. On September 9, Valley Link closed on the entire Culpeper County tract eyed for its proposed Yeat substation, paying $4.5 million with no contingency tying the sale to a rezoning or conditional use permit. That is not how a careful buyer usually handles land that is still zoned agricultural and still needs local permission before it can become an electrical substation. The or

Campbell County finally joined the club last night. Four to three, the Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution opposing the Valley Link 765 kV line, the billion-dollar corridor that would turn rural Campbell into a high-voltage extension cord for Northern Virginia’s data centers. Supervisor Matt Cline put the resolution on the table and carried it. Every other county on the proposed path had already said no. Campbell was the last holdout. It is no longer.

Campbell County is finally putting opposition to the Valley Link 765 kV line on the record. On Tuesday, October 6, the Board of Supervisors will vote on a resolution that does what neighboring counties have already done: reject the idea that Campbell should be carved up as a pass-through corridor so Northern Virginia data centers can keep the lights on.

Evidently the folks at Valley Link woke up yesterday, stared at a map of Louisa County, and decided five extra miles of alternate route would look nice right in the middle of it. No memo. No rationale. No “oops, we forgot a school.” Just a new line on the map, as if transmission corridors appear by divine inspiration. We pinged their favorite spin artist, Rob Richardson, plus the official Valley Link contact page. The silence has been majestic.

The president of Preserve Rural Virginia passed along the latest briefing Goochland County Administrator Dr. Raley received from Dominion on the Valley Link Joshua Falls-to-Yeat line. Apparently Dr. Raley has regular check-ins with Dominion about the four transmission projects the utility intends to carve through the county. This week’s call produced the following schedule:

Anyone still pretending they don’t know how much EMF this 765 kV Valley Link monument to industrial progress is going to pour over their house? Wonder no more. We made a map. Because nothing says “personal perspective” quite like watching a color gradient crawl across your kitchen. Click the map below and enter your address at the top.

A Virginia-born, Virginia-bred, still-Virginia-living bluegrass singer has just handed Valley Link the one thing no 175-foot tower can drown out: a chorus.

West Virginias's Public Service Commission (PSC) staff is asking the commission to pause or kill NextEra’s MidAtlantic Resiliency Link (MARL) transmission project, ostensibly over some last-minute route tweaks that suddenly created “new affected landowners” and a nearly million-dollar cost bump. The straightforward part of the filing is the usual procedural hand-wringing about notice and due process. Cute.

By now you’ve probably absorbed Mike Regan’s tidy little bombshell about what Orange County Government has been quietly cooking for more than a year. It’s a masterclass in how a county can stealth-recruit hyperscale data centerr, apparently aiming for the densest concentration in Virginia, while treating the public like an inconvenient afterthought. Nearly 9,000 acres are being shopped around through secret talks, NDAs, guided site tours, and supervisory hand-holding. All of

A young lady named Amy from Buckingham kindly shared the recording of her delightful sit-down at Valley Link’s “office hours” yesterday. Fair warning: some parts are painful to hear. She’s understandably distraught that this project is about to bulldoze her future in one tidy package. Her interlocutor? None other than Rob Richardson, chief PR shaman for Valley Link/Dominion Energy. The original recording ran a bracing 43 minutes. We’ve extracted the highlights; the full unedi

Attention, Buckingham County residents: the Valley Link PR wizards have thoughtfully scheduled stealth “office hours” for tomorrow, July 30, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Buckingham County Community Center, 16268 N. James Madison Highway, Dillwyn, VA 23936. I assume this is in lieu of the “science fair” canceled last month due to the massive measles outbreak in the county.

Last evening’s Stop Valley Link community meeting at the Moss-Nuckols Elementary School in Louisa managed to draw a rather impressive crowd, during which various speakers thoughtfully illuminated the protracted campaign against Valley Link, along with the deleterious consequences of lifelong immersion in the electromagnetic fields so generously provided by these transmission lines. Video excerpts shall be curated as time allows; in the meantime, the complete, unedited recordi

When: Tuesday, July 28 | 6:00 PM Where: Moss-Nuckols Elementary School, 2055 Courthouse Road, Louisa, VA 23093 Featured speakers: Theodora M. Scarato, Director of the Electromagnetic Fields Program and Special Expert to the International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields — presentation + full Q&A Michael Regan, Orange County resident — latest project updates Duane Adams, Chairman, Louisa County Board of Supervisors — county response If you live

Well folks, I stand corrected. Miracles do happen, or at least the occasional outbreak of common sense. As the attached joint statement makes crystal clear, the Culpeper County Republican Committee has finally joined with the Culpeper Democrats and put their names on the same page, clarifying their positions and jointly rejecting the Yeat substation’s proposed home in Culpeper County. Thank you to both parties for deciding to stand with their own citizens.

As this endless war against the Valley Link monstrosity drags on, we’re all getting a very expensive education—especially me. Data centers don’t just happen to need giant new transmission lines; they demand them. Certainly they won't consider local power generation unless their hand is forced. And nothing attracts a data center faster than a freshly cleared transmission corridor. The Valley Link Joshua Falls to Yeat route is the textbook example of this cozy little arrangeme

A little bird alerted me late yesterday that the Virginia Farm Bureau was hosting a listening session for the Virginia Department of Energy (VDOE) in Richmond to get feedback from citizens, farmers, ranchers, and companies in Virginia as the current administration forms it's 2026 Virginia Energy Plan (VEP). This was a real chance to have our voices heard. Unfortunately it was too late to notify all of you to partake also. Below was my feedback spoken to the Virginia Depart

I want to again urge citizens affected by this Valley Link mess to follow-through and post their concerns to the USDA lawfare page if you haven't already. John Rich of country music fame has been appointed by the President to be the official savior and citizen advocate for farmers, ranchers, and rural citizens getting abused and terrorized by energy companies, sound familiar?

Agriculture is Virginia's largest private industry, generating an economic impact of more than $82 billion annually. Our farms, timber, and rural land are long-term economic engines that support families, communities, and local businesses year after year. Data centers can relocate to another state if incentives or profits change. Our farms cannot. Big towers, big risks, big mistakes -- Block Valley Link.

More map gymnastics, courtesy of AEP! They’ve finally deigned to release their latest map and proposed routes around the new Joshua Falls energy distribution hub. What a generous gift to Campbell County: brand-new 138kV route alternatives running between the old and new Joshua Falls substations, plus two new 765kV route alternatives feeding the shiny new bulk energy distribution hub. The new map including all of the AEP gems is up on on the home page. Campbell county folks,

In a display of corporate solidarity that would make even the most fervent lobbyist blush, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce has enthusiastically signed onto a letter urging PJM Interconnection to fast-track the Valley Link transmission project — a 115-mile, 765-kilovolt monster slicing through central Virginia’s rural counties. The Virginia Chamber of Commerce has chosen its side. It is the side of bigger transmission lines, more corporate load, and the power of eminent doma