A Fairer Path for Virginia’s Energy Future

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 Department of Energy.

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Good afternoon. My name is Paul McDonald founder of Block Valley Link, and I’m here today to speak as a Virginian and farmer who believes our energy policy must serve all of us — not just the biggest corporations.

The 2026 Virginia Energy Plan rightly focuses on siting of generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure, affordability for families and businesses, and smart recommendations for action. But right now, projects like the proposed Valley Link transmission line show we are getting it wrong.

This 115-mile, 765-kilovolt line would cut across rural central Virginia — through farms, forests, and communities — using conventional overhead towers the height of 12-story buildings. It relies on 19th-century-style long-distance transmission to move power hundreds of miles from generation sources to hyper-scale data centers in Northern Virginia. To build it, utilities will use eminent domain to seize and severely restrict private land. Rural farmers and ranchers will lose productive acreage, see their property values drop, and watch their way of life permanently altered — all so distant data centers can consume massive amounts of electricity.

Meanwhile, ordinary ratepayers — families struggling with rising bills and small businesses trying to stay competitive — will ultimately pay for the construction, operation, and the profits of these massive industrial facilities through their utility rates. That is neither fair nor sustainable.

This approach fails the affordability test. Data center demand is exploding and driving the need for expensive new infrastructure. Yet the costs and physical burdens are being shifted onto rural Virginians and everyday ratepayers, while the largest beneficiaries — hyperscale tech companies — face little accountability for the system impacts they create.

Here is the recommendation the 2026 Virginia Energy Plan should embrace:

The General Assembly should pass legislation requiring large-load customers — specifically hyper-scale data centers, to provide dedicated near-site or on-site generation capability as a condition of interconnection and operation. This could include co-located natural gas plants with carbon capture, small modular reactors, fuel cell solutions, or robust renewable-plus-storage solutions built to serve their specific demand.

By placing generation closer to the load, we dramatically reduce the need for sprawling new transmission corridors that scar rural landscapes and require the seizure of private land. We lower overall system costs, improve grid resilience, and ensure that those who create the biggest new demand also bear responsibility for meeting it — instead of forcing rural landowners and average ratepayers to subsidize their growth.

The Virginia Energy Plan has the opportunity to chart a smarter, fairer course. Let’s stop approving century-old transmission solutions for 21st-century problems. Let’s require large loads to stand on their own power where possible. And let’s protect Virginia’s rural communities while still meeting our energy needs responsibly.

Thank you. I urge you to include these principles in the 2026 Virginia Energy Plan.

#BlockValleyLink