Virginia Chamber of Commerce Cheers On Land Grab for Big Tech’s Power Needs

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 June 18, 2026 joint letter, signed by interim President & CEO Keith Martin on behalf of the Virginia Chamber along with several other business groups, gushes about the urgent need for this infrastructure to protect “grid reliability” and “economic competitiveness.” It warns darkly of system outages stretching across the Commonwealth and insists that any delay would be “more costly to ratepayers.”

What the letter carefully avoids spelling out is the primary driver of that demand: the explosive growth of hyper-scale data centers operated by out-of-state giants like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Meta. PJM’s own load forecasts attribute the surge overwhelmingly to these facilities, not to ordinary residential or small-business growth. The Valley Link line (Joshua Falls to Yeat) is part of the regional grid operator’s scramble to deliver power from western generation sources to the data-center-heavy northern Virginia load centers.

Central Virginia's rural landowners, however, are being "asked" to provide the land for the corridor, either surrendering it through voluntary easements (Ha!) or the Commonwealth of Virginia will do it using eminent domain, with force if necessary. 2,700+ acres are on the land seizure chopping block.

The Virginia Chamber apparently has no problem with this arrangement. While it frames the project as essential infrastructure for “economic development,” the development in question is largely the private profit of massive tech corporations whose server farms now dominate Northern Virginia’s power consumption. Ratepayers will foot the bill under existing cost-allocation rules. Rural counties along the route get the towers, the visual blight, the disrupted farms, livelihoods, and the legal fight over whether seizing private land for private corporate power demand qualifies as a legitimate “public use.”

Efforts to get the Virginia Chamber to clarify its position have been met with the bureaucratic equivalent of crickets. A telephone conversation with Executive Committee Chair Jennifer Siciliano produced a promise of a callback from leadership that never materialized. A subsequent email seeking:

• An official statement on whether the Chamber endorses eminent domain to serve private data-center infrastructure. and,

• Why some board members reportedly learned of the letter only after it was sent. and,

• Whether the organization aligns with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s broader rhetoric against property confiscation went unanswered.

One might have expected Virginia’s flagship business organization to at least grapple with the tension between championing “economic development” and supporting the potential seizure of its own members’ land for the benefit of distant tech behemoths. Instead, the letter reads like a press release from the Valley Link themselves.

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 domain to make it all happen. Rural Virginians whose properties sit in the proposed path now know exactly where their state’s leading business lobby stands when private land and private power demands collide.

An additional focus on the Virginia Chamber board members shows that the executive director of the Louisa County Chamber of Commerce is a Virginia Chamber board member, Ms Tracy Hale Clark. That connection led me to contact the county level chambers in each of the 9 counties. Note that all of the email requests and responses are included in the 'Receipts' section at the bottom of this article.

Here are the results.

Phone calls and emails with Ms. Clark at the Louisa Chamber revealed, incredibly given the impact on the county, that they have no position on the Valley Link transmission line and that: "Business is our priority". I note a few things that stand out with respect to the Louisa Chamber:

• Ms. Clark confirmed the Louisa Chamber is connected to the Virginia Chamber, not all county level chambers are.

• Ms. Clark noted the following in here email response: "Our Board of Directors has not adopted an official position regarding the Valley Link project or the policy issues referenced in your email. Accordingly, the Chamber does not have a position to endorse, oppose, or reconcile regarding those matters."

• Ms. Clark, even though a Virginia Chamber board member says she had no prior knowledge of the letter the Virginia Chamber wrote to PJM.

• Dominion Energy appears to be a major $ponsor of the Louisa Chamber.

• Ms. Marshall - Director - Strategic Outreach & Stakeholder Engagement for Dominion Energy is a Louisa Chamber board member. She appears to be the perfect person to represent Dominion Energy on the Louisa Chamber as Dominion maneuvers to plow the transmission line through the county.

• Mr. Downey - Assistant Superintendent for the Louisa School system is a Louisa Chamber board member. Mr. Downey noted in a phone call to me that there is "no conflict of interest" between his position in the Louisa School system and his position as a Louisa Chamber board member. He stated he "simply wants to give back to the community." I do think Mr. Downey is sincere in this statement, but it is my opinion there is at least the appearance of conflict.

The letter to the Culpeper Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Ms. Frazier produced almost the exact opposite response and I commended them for their position. Curiously, it included a difference between what Ms. Clark of the Louisa Chamber told us regarding knowledge of the letter and what Ms. Frazier indicated. I did follow-up with Ms. Frazier but it has produced no response to date. Here are summary points from Ms. Frazier's response.

• The Culpeper Chamber and members oppose the project and taking of private land by eminent domain.

• Ms. Frazier specifically stated in the response that "...none of the Chambers in the localities directly impacted by this project signed on to the Virginia Chamber's letter of support to PJM — and that is not an oversight. We were given the opportunity to sign and chose not to." But the Louisa Chamber knew nothing about it?

The other six county chambers offered no response, note that the Appomattox chamber disbanded in 2023.

Receipts

1. Virginia Chamber of Commerce letter to PJM grid operator.

VaChamber-to-PJM-Letter.pdf

Download PDF • 213KB

2. All of the emails sent to and received from the Virginia Chamber, Louisa Chamber, and Culpeper Chamber.

VaChamber-Louisa-Culpeper-Email-Chain.pdf

Download PDF • 787KB

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