Block Valley Link

08/12/2026

Call to ACTION: The ever-busy Richardsville Coalition is inviting every warm body in a yellow shirt to march with their float in tomorrow’s 75th Annual Brandy Station Volunteer Fire Department Firemen’s Parade. Line-up starts at the leisurely hour of 5:30pm, link below. The beloved Quantico Marine Band is headlining, a perfect offset to a sea of yellow.

None other than Culpeper Supervisor DeWayne Payne will be personally steering the float—an actual combine or some other enormous farm tractor liberally festooned with anti-Valley Link décor. Because nothing says “subtle civic engagement” like a giant tractor rolling down the parade route amidst a sea of yellow.

Quick lesson for the slow learners: the only place where actual voters still get a say in killing a key piece of the Valley Link transmission line is Culpeper. That key piece is the planned endpoint in Richardsville, the charmingly named Yeat Substation, a.k.a. the bulk energy distribution hub nobody asked for. The Culpeper Board of Supervisors has the final word. Not the SCC. Not Richmond. Not some utility executive in a nice suit. Culpeper. Full stop.

A reminder: Supervisor Payne, backed by the Richardsville Coalition’s rather energetic yellow-shirt army, has already dragged the Board into passing two resolutions against the Yeat Substation. Meetings have been turned into seas of yellow more times than Valley Link would care to admit. Payne also somehow convinced the Culpeper Republican Committee to lock arms with the Democrats in a joint resolution against both the transmission line and the substation, an event so rare it should probably be listed as an endangered species. When was the last time both parties agreed on anything? The bi-partisan coalition against land seizure and unwanted industrialization is impressive!

Valley Link, for their part, has called the mere possibility of Culpeper blocking their precious substation “unprecedented.” They also appear to have zero backup plan. How tragic.

So grab the yellow, the signs, the posters, the whole circus, and line up with the Richardsville Coalition. Let the entire parade route know this isn’t going away until the Board finally votes NO on whatever rezoning or special-use permit eventually shows up for the Yeat Substation.

Side note: Rumor has it Supervisor Payne plans to paint his face in yellow stripes, Mel Gibson Braveheart style. Can anyone confirm? That is just the kind of over-the-top energy this fight deserves. Might I suggest that anyone lacking a yellow shirt might substitute with this style face paint, the message will be clear.

Link to parade information: https://bsvfd.com/2026-parade-sign-up-and-information/

08/07/2026

Did Orange County Government “Inadvertently” Shove Valley Link Westward… Straight Into Orange?

By now you’ve probably absorbed Mike Regan’s tidy little bombshell about what the 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 centers, 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 it bankrolled by your tax dollars, of course, with that charming disregard for whether the citizens might actually want any of it.

Multiple 2025–2026 reports (City Journal, BBC, and friends) note that Loudoun’s data centers cover about 3% of the county’s land, roughly 9,900–10,000 acres of dedicated parcels. The Orange sites unearthed in these FOIAs sit uncomfortably close to that figure. Let’s hope not every acre turns into server farms. But even half would still dump 4,500 acres of industrial concentration onto the eastern end of the county. And wouldn’t you know it, rabid data-center cheerleader and former Board chairman Mark Johnson has lately been posting about how wonderful these things would be for Orange. Conveniently, his district sits about as far from the heavily marketed parcels as geography allows. Distance, it seems, makes the heart grow fonder… of other people’s problems.

Which brings us to the original premise: county planning and aggressive marketing of these parcels to data-center operators appear to have herded the Valley Link transmission line straight through eastern Orange. Overlay the proposed routes on the FOIA parcels and the picture snaps into focus—the routing team is thoughtfully co-locating a 765 kV industrial line on or beside almost every single marketed site. Pure coincidence that nearly every parcel the county has been pitching somehow ends up with one or more routes threading through or next to it? Or might the county have been in cozy, ongoing conversation with Dominion about whose land gets sacrificed for the “greater good”?

Consider the modest 100-plus-acre parcel recently hawked by Avison Young as data-center ready. An alternate Valley Link route obligingly swings wide around that corner of the county just to punch through that exact property. Coincidence, surely.

Or the sprawling timber tracts that inconveniently abut the densely populated Lake of the Woods community. Should those get developed, residents can look forward to the full data-center lifestyle package; 24/7 noise, diesel fumes, the works, courtesy of their own government. While they endure it, supervisors will be thoughtfully deciding how to spend the tax revenue generated by that suffering. Remember: the county helpfully deleted the 1,000-foot residential setback (at the polite request of Amazon’s lawyers). Some might call that an open invitation to nestle right up against people’s homes.

Then there’s the juicy parcel sandwiched between the Walmart on Route 3 and the Somerset Ridge community, perhaps explaining why the Yeat substation sits so conveniently near Orange. One doubts those neighbors ever pictured a hyperscale data center as the new kid on the block.

Looking back at the six-month war over rural central Virginia, we recall the supervisors’ repeated insistence that they were every bit as shocked as the citizens by the transmission-line routing. Those FOIA revelations and a few choice remarks from the Valley Link presentation at Orange County High School on March 24, 2026, are making that claim harder to swallow. The representative helpfully explained how routes are chosen:

“You have to look to see if there are co-location opportunities.” Might a thousand-plus-acre data-center campus count as one of those?

“So you look at things like industrial areas, and if a county has a tech overlay district.” Our supervisors keep touting that shiny tech overlay as citizen protection. How, exactly, is anyone supposed to decide where to live in this county? A safer bet might be deep in Mark Johnson’s distant district.

If you live east of Route 522 and north of Route 20, welcome to the planned Orange County Data Center Alley. District 4: congratulations, you’re the designated sacrifice zone. The timing is exquisite—another three years to bulldoze in the industrial transmission line, neatly synchronized with a data-center build-out.

If ever a situation proved that fighting data centers and fighting transmission lines cannot be separated, this is it. When Valley Link files with the State Corporation Commission they will be including their load assumptions driving the need. We suspect it will be quite the reveal as to what drove this transmission line into certain areas of the nine counties. The original premise that it was purely for Northern Virginia may just fall apart as we find out what our local governments have been secretly planning.

Orange citizens: Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, August 11 at 5 p.m., public comment period included. Highly recommended you show up and offer your supervisors some polite, pointed feedback on these highly secretive county plans.

Peruse the complete map of the new Orange Data Center Alley by the link below. Note this disclaimer: The map is derived from Orange County records obtained through FOIA, supplemented where necessary by publicly available parcel information. It is intended to illustrate parcels that County records indicate may have been evaluated, discussed, or marketed by Orange County for potential hyperscale data center development. Because many County records do not identify specific parcels IDs, some parcel locations represent our best interpretation of the available information. Accordingly, not every highlighted parcel should be interpreted as definitively associated with County recruitment activities, nor does this map imply that every landowner participated in, supported, or was aware of those activities. The map will be refined as additional records become available.

https://www.blockvalleylink.org/post/did-orange-county-government-inadvertently-shove-valley-link-westward-straight-into-orange

Mike Regan's Post: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/191iv6Hach/

07/31/2026

Buckingham’s Stealth Office Hours: Highlights from the Empathy-Free Zone

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 unedited version remains available on our web site, see link at end.

Key takeaways and fresh revelations:

**Listen VERY carefully around the 30-second mark. Rob helpfully clarifies that EVERY route on the table is still a “draft.” The actual preferred routes will be unveiled at some future virtual meeting vaguely scheduled for “this fall.” So for anyone still clinging to the comforting fantasy that today’s preferred routes won’t quietly morph back into the March versions, relax, they’re ALL still in play. As counties continue approving data centers in the coming months, expect this monstrosity to drift toward the power load like a moth to a particularly lucrative flame.

**A swimming pool right next to a 765 kV line? Perfectly fine. Zero danger. Sleep well, kids.

**If your livelihood depends on keeping your property pesticide-free, tough luck. They can’t even tell you which chemicals they’ll eventually douse the place with until after they’ve seized it. Transparency at its finest.

**The Valley Link team has somehow never heard that there’s enough energy under a 765 kV line to light ordinary fluorescent bulbs. Stunning. Truly groundbreaking ignorance.

**Once your land is taken, they’ll thoughtfully host construction open houses to explain, in soothing tones, exactly how they plan to permanently wreck what’s left. Rob even offers that if there’s someone trespassing in your woods you dislike, they’ll give you a number to call. How neighborly.

**Temporary construction easements may be required depending on the terrain. Translation: even if the line itself misses your property, they can still temporarily seize land outside the 200-foot right-of-way so they can bulldoze a convenient path to reach it. Using the existing right-of-way for access would apparently be far too much trouble. Don’t worry, they’ll decide how much inconvenience is acceptable without any input from you.

**The SCC timeline is getting charmingly “muddy.” First September, then October, now Rob says sometime in 2026. Our money’s on a neatly gift-wrapped filing the day before Thanksgiving, when everyone’s distracted by turkey and relatives.

**Rob’s timeline for survey teams appearing on your property no longer matches what he said in earlier meetings, or what landowners actually experienced with the Golden-to-Mars line. Now he claims surveys happen after easement negotiations. Previously it was right after the SCC decision. In the Golden-to-Mars case, the survey letters went out immediately after the decision. Consistency is overrated, apparently.

**In the final five or six minutes Rob launches into a passionate rant about how desperately “needed” these lines are. He helpfully confirms what we’ve said all along: this buildout is driven by new data centers, not Grandma dialing down her thermostat in July. One Stafford data-center campus alone will require nine substations. He then ticks off the projects in Louisa, Buckingham, Spotsylvania, Goochland, Richmond, and Stafford. Commercial purposes, pure and simple.

**Rob is described by Amy as looking like “death warmed over.” Putting a cheerful bow on rural Virginia’s slow-motion apocalypse does appear to be exacting a toll. He’s clearly impatient with Amy; you can practically hear the corporate desire to be anywhere else. Get some rest Rob, you'll need it. Simple grade school math shows that MANY more high voltage transmission lines are going to be needed to feed all of these data centers.

This is likely the last public interaction we’ll get with the Valley Link team until that vague virtual meeting sometime this “fall.” Things will probably go quiet, though rest assured the Valley Link lawyers are already sharpening their pencils.

Oh, and one final note on the spirit of open dialogue: anyone who showed up to these office hours but declined to hand over their name and address, or whose property wasn’t already in the crosshairs, was simply turned away. Transparency, meet the velvet rope.

Full article with original audio access here: https://www.blockvalleylink.org/post/buckingham-s-stealth-office-hours-highlights-from-the-empathy-free-zone

07/29/2026

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.

How thoughtful of them, right in the middle of a normal workday, when absolutely everyone is free to drop by.

I’m sure they’ll be only too happy to explain, in glowing detail, why 175-foot towers are about to parade across your land and treat your family to a permanent industrial-strength EMF bath.

See the snapshot of the postcard a young lady in Buckingham helpfully provided. Note that this is not listed anywhere on their web site, almost makes you think they are hoping no one shows up.

07/29/2026

Full video of the meeting is at the link below along with the highlights and link to Theodora's page which is chock full of information on the threats these transmission lines pose, we encourage everyone to take a deep dive.

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 recording of the full hour-and-thirty-two-minute proceedings is offered below. A few particularly memorable observations emerged from the evening’s discourse:

Louisa Board Chairman Duane Adams
“What makes this impressive to me is that these organized meetings, these protests, the people that show up to board of supervisor meetings across these nine counties, it is impressive because it is all citizen led. It is people getting involved in their community and that is the force that Valley Link did not reckon with because they thought we were going to roll over and play dead. Folks, we're not rolling over and playing dead.”

Orange County citizen Mike Regan
“We want to make sure we never inadvertently concede the need. One of the biggest mistakes these movements make, time and time again, you can look at the SCC records at what has been approved or not, is that they concede the need. They don't mean to; 'I'm ok with this as long as you put it underground.' 'I'm ok with this if you move the route.' 'I'm ok with this if you change the tower design.' Don't take my word for it, look at the SCC fact sheet for the recent Golden to Mars case decision.”

Theodora Scarato
“It's been tragic to hear whats been happening. Not just to Virginia, but all around the country. This is happing in states all across the United States.” “In many other countries, we could not be doing what we are doing here.” “We don't have good rules going in, and we don't have good rules once they are in for oversight.”

Theodora Scarato further noted that in the 1970s scientists examining these effects appeared on 60 Minutes, testified in hearings, and publicly declared the matter unsafe—only to see their funding promptly evaporate. “This story is repeated over and over again.”

“The scientist I work with, there is you'd think, haven't we studied this? We're putting it all in the community, and this many lines, aren't we studying it? Who is looking into it? The answer is, for the United States, as far as I know, no one is doing the research that just needs to be done, and should have been done.”

“Electromagnetic radiation is radiation, but it is not ionizing. But that doesn't mean it can't impact us. As we just talked about, it can have cellular effects at the cellular level, our bodies communicate with electricity, of course there is going to be an impact if you are exposed day after day, year after year. And the science, overwhelmingly, when it comes to this issue has reported effects. What hasn't happened, as I'll talk about, is that the US Government agencies that you would think would be protecting you at the federal level and the state level, are not even looking into this. So we don't have any review of the science.”

https://www.blockvalleylink.org/post/stop-valley-link-community-meeting-initial-highlights

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 immer...

07/27/2026

When: Tuesday, July 28 | 6:00 PM
Where: Moss-Nuckols Elementary School2055 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 near any proposed transmission-line route, especially if you have children, you need to be there. Get the facts on constant EMF exposure from high-voltage lines and substations, then ask the hard questions.

Scarato has led the national fight exposing these health risks. She helped secure a formal warning letter from Dr. David Carpenter (public-health physician and Director of the Institute for Health and the Environment, University at Albany, SUNY) to supervisors in Culpeper and Campbell counties: EMF dangers are real, and government’s first duty is to protect citizens. (See full letter and included study at the link below)

Arrive early. Sign the petitions. Stop this project.

When: Tuesday, July 28 | 6:00 PMWhere: Moss-Nuckols Elementary School2055 Courthouse Road, Louisa, VA 23093Featured speakers: • Theodora M. Scarato, Director of the Electromagnetic Fields Program and Special Expert to the International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields...

07/25/2026

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, and especially to the Culpeper Democrats led by Chair Josh Pieper. He immediately recognized the importance of this issue to his constituents and took action.

A special tip of the hat to Supervisor DeWayne Payne, who somehow wrestled this bipartisan miracle across the finish line despite the earlier five-minute time limit and the chorus of “the SCC decides everything” from other party members. True bipartisan leadership: the rarest of unicorns, and a solid reminder that fighting for constituents is still possible. The citizens of Culpeper, especially the Richardsville folks and their coalition, deserve the real credit; they’ve poured in the hours, the meetings, and the pure stubbornness that made the politicians eventually notice.

But let’s not get too carried away reveling in this bipartisan glow over stopping this industrial monstrosity. Behind the curtain, Dominion Energy and its industry pals are already sharpening their full-court-press playbook for the moment the State Corporation Commission rubber-stamps the transmission line. That’s when the rezoning application for the Yeat substation will magically appear, complete with the predictable arsenal: robocalls, saturation advertising, and every other tool designed to lean on the supervisors. The same tired gaslighting script won't change a bit: “It’s a done deal, the decision’s already made, just accept the inevitable.”

Remember, ALL authority still rests with the Culpeper Supervisors to deny the substation. Neither the SCC nor governor can override that authority.

Stay vigilant, stay loud, and remember: this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Click the link below to view the full statement.

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....

07/08/2026

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 arrangement.

Valley Link’s PR flacks keep insisting this line will be the “backbone” of Virginia’s grid, complete with plenty of juicy “ribs” branching off to feed their data center clients. How thoughtful.

I’ve gone ahead and officially enrolled Block Valley Link in the Virginia Data Center Reform Coalition, sponsored by the Piedmont Environmental Council.

You can expect us to start bothering politicians about the deliberate policy vacuum that lets these things get approved with little more than a substation and a wave. Some localities have actually created zoning ordinances that while they have some teeth, are really no more than a check-list, influenced and approved by the attorneys for the data centers.

Once the concrete is poured, Dominion gets to dust off the eminent domain playbook, backed by the full power of the state, and run whatever lines they feel like running. Funny how that works every single time.

If you’re free, the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter is holding a data center rally this Saturday, July 11th at 11 a.m. at the Bell Tower in Richmond. I'm tied up speaking to a very receptive political committee so can't make it. RSVP and details here: https://act.sierraclub.org/events/details?formcampaignid=701Po00001x3dNQIAY

Enough is enough: Our Leaders are Failing us on Data CentersFor years, our legislators have punted on action to put people before Big Tech. Enough is enough.As Virginia's data center growth accelerates, protections for our communities, our resources, and o

07/08/2026

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 also partake. Below was my feedback spoken to the Virginia Department of Energy.

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.