Piedmont Environmental Council

06/19/2026

Residents: There's still time to share your input on environmental and energy issues! Please be sure to take the Loudoun County Government Environment and Energy survey by Monday, June 22. Your responses to the survey will help inform the Loudoun County Environmental Commission's report and recommendations to the Board of Supervisors about policies and practices dealing with the environment, sustainability and the management of energy. 🌱

It's OK if you didn't attend the annual forum mentioned in the survey - you can still participate. 🗳️

Take the survey: https://www.loudoun.gov/5999/Energy-Environment-Forum

📸: Hugh Kenny/PEC

06/18/2026

Stop your scroll to take in the timelapse, so you know it’s time to:

1️⃣ stop incentivizing the data center industry with its 2008-era sales tax exemption AND
2️⃣ pause all new data center approvals so a plan can be created to manage what’s already in front of us.

Take action at pecva.org/stopthecrisis 🌍

06/17/2026

The time to act on data centers is now ⚠️

Virginia must:
➡️ Pause approvals of all new data center projects until Virginia has a plan for the impacts of what’s already been approved
➡️ Eliminate the outdated $1.9 billion data center sales tax exemption

Take 1️⃣ minute to tell the Governor and General Assembly to protect Virginians at pecva.org/stopthecrisis

06/16/2026

Agree but haven’t written your elected officials yet? ➡️ https://secure.everyaction.com/t12tcNYqUE-3T1yXm76KSg2

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PEC’s Director of Land Use Julie Bolthouse speaks at a data center listening session in Manassas, Va last night.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZn52yCo2_S/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

06/16/2026

If you agree, take one minute to write your legislators today: https://secure.everyaction.com/t12tcNYqUE-3T1yXm76KSg2

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PEC's Director of Land Use Julie Bolthouse speaks at a Data Center Listening Session in Manassas, Va last night.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZn52yCo2_S/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

06/16/2026

If you agree, take one minute to write your legislators today: https://secure.everyaction.com/t12tcNYqUE-3T1yXm76KSg2

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PEC's Director of Land Use, Julie Bolthouse, speaking at a Data Center Listening Session in Manassas, Va last night.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZn52yCo2_S/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

06/16/2026

nesting season is well underway and in our 600 boxes, kestrels are raising hundreds of new chicks 💕

Across six counties, the Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative, the Old Rag Master Naturalists and the Rivanna Master Naturalists are monitoring boxes for activity, while PEC bands adults and chicks as part of a study to better understand the kestrel populations decline.

All year, we build and install these boxes across the Piedmont so these birds have a chance to thrive and contribute to the ecosystem. Tag us in your kestrel pictures, we’d love to see!

06/15/2026

“What happened was this community was blindsided,” said Gem Bingol, a Piedmont Environmental Council field representative for Loudoun.

Residents in Sterling, Va were told a data center would be going up in their neighborhood. No one said that it would "become the state’s first to use onsite natural gas turbines to power itself."

A PEC-commissioned study found that the facility's permitted emissions could result in an estimated $53 - $99 million per year in health-related damages. But without transparency in this review process, and thanks to the speed and scale in which the data center industry is seeking to connect to the grid, the decision was already made.

PowerPoint presentations about dense research papers don’t typically draw a crowd.

06/14/2026

Please share! Join fellow concerned Virginians this Monday night in Gainesville for a critical discussion on data center reform. Hear from the Virginia state legislators leading the charge just as the General Assembly reconvenes this week to finalize the state budget.

On the table: a $1.9 billion data center tax exemption and a proposed pause on new approvals so the state can plan for the projects already in the pipeline. Now is the time to demand action from Richmond!

Coalition to Protect Prince William County Prince William Conservation Alliance Citizens for Fauquier County

A listening session where residents, businesses, and community, leaders can speak directly with state leaders about data centers impact.