Why the Valley Link "Science Fair" was Held in Lynchburg

While I was stuck at the latest Valley Link “science fair” in Lynchburg—staged, of course, purely for the benefit of the poor victims in Campbell County—everyone kept wondering why they held it so far from the actual people getting steamrolled. Mystery solved.

The “public outreach” was conveniently staged at the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance offices in downtown Lynchburg, safely miles from the Campbell County line. Home field, indeed. And just in case anyone still had doubts about whose interests are being served, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce has now helpfully submitted their love letter to our grid overlord, PJM, gushing over the genius decision to carve a 200-foot-wide scar and march 175-foot towers down a 115-mile “trail of tears” through central Virginia. What a bold, selfless choice over all those other boring options that wouldn’t have required eminent domain on a massive scale.

Naturally, the letter says nothing about the farms being sliced in half, the private land being seized by the state on behalf of foreign private equity firms, or the industrial-strength EMF the rest of us will be enjoying forever. Those are apparently just the cost of doing business for the greater good.

And who signed this masterwork of corporate ventriloquism? The usual collection of front groups for the exact tech companies whose data centers created the supposed “need” for this monstrosity in the first place. Front and center, of course: the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance. How shockingly unexpected.

Read the full letter here: https://www.pjm.com/-/media/DotCom/about-pjm/who-we-are/public-disclosures/2026/20260618-joint-letter.pdf

Side note: The PJM board comments web site is supposed to show ALL of the letters they have received. I know for a fact that numerous letters, received weeks before this one, have not yet been posted. Strange they managed to get this one up there. I've called, I've emailed, to no avail, just a mystery.

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