Local legislators have joined in with Orange County Supervisors in the fight against Valley Link.
On Tuesday, District 5 Supervisor and board chair Bryan Nicol said all three of Orange County’s representatives have agreed to join the county in a joint letter of opposition regarding the Joshua Falls-Yeat Transmission Project. The project is one of three proposed by joint venture Valley Link and approved by regional transmission organization PJM Interconnection. It would build approximately 115 miles of 765kV transmission lines from Campbell County to Culpeper County with preliminary routes crossing up to nine localities, including Orange County. At 765kV, the transmission lines are the highest voltage, highest capacity transmission line type available in the country and would include structures between 135 and 160 feet tall requiring approximately 200 feet of right-of-way. Valley Link representatives have said the project is needed to solve grid reliability issues amid unprecedented growth in the demand for energy. The project would allow power being generated in the Ohio River Valley to be accessed in Northern Virginia, which, according to the Northern Virginia Regional Commission, has the highest concentration of data centers in the world. Eight of the nine counties involved, including Orange County, are opposed to the project.
The letter of opposition is being finalized and will be sent out with Senator Bryce Reeves and delegates Phillip Scott and Karen Hamilton signing on.
“We’ll have a united position from the county and those who represent the citizens of the county,” Nicol said.
The supervisors also plan to submit follow-up questions to Valley Link representatives regarding the project. More than 20 questions were submitted in March. Those questions and answers can be viewed online at https://orangecountyva.gov/1235/Valley-Link-Questions.
Late last month, the supervisors voted to join with five other counties to file as a joint intervener in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) process regarding a proposal by PJM Interconnection to expedite studies of new power generation that meet certain requirements. PJM is hoping to have an alternate path for advanced projects like the Joshua Falls-Yeat project of significant size to get connected quickly to address the need for greater capacity. Under the fast track option, projects would take 10 months to be awarded a connection agreement, decreased from the current years-long process. The project would have to offer at least 250MW of “accredited unforced capacity” and be able to be in operation within three years. Up to 10 projects would be chosen for the fast track process per year over two years. Approval of the filing is requested by May 28, becoming effective July 31.
Supervisors have not, however, committed significant funding to the fight. Both Louisa and Goochland have committed up to $250,000 to cover potential legal fees regarding the Joshua Falls-Yeat project. Orange County Supervisors, while verbally supporting a regional approach, have not followed suit.
Meanwhile, residents are fundraising for their own fight against the electric giants. Preserve Orange Alliance, which was established to protect the rural, agricultural, environmental and historic character of Orange County, has turned its attention to the Joshua Falls-Yeat project. The alliance has partnered with community acting group Block Valley Link to organize a unified front across the counties challenging the justification for the project.
“Through an official partnership with Block Valley Link, which has reach across all nine affected counties, we are coordinating a regional effort to address the concerns of everyone impacted by the Joshua Falls to Yeat project,” alliance president Benjamin Pennington said. “While the Preserve Orange Alliance is based in Orange, we are actively attending meetings with organized citizens in the other affected counties to ensure our legal strategy addresses the project as a whole.”
Pennington said the alliance has created a legal defense fund to retain specialized SCC counsel and expert witnesses to challenge the need for the project when it comes before the SCC, something that is expected to happen once Valley Link files in September. While county governments tend to focus on local routing, mitigation, zoning and tax impacts, Pennington said the alliance will focus on landowner rights, conservation interests, environmental impacts, grid-planning assumptions and the integrity of the demand projections, “priorities that are not always the primary focus of taxpayer-funded county legal teams.” The alliance has applied for nonprofit status and has established governance structures including a board of directors and a written conflict-of-interest policy to ensure accountability, transparency and responsible stewardship.
Pennington said the alliance will continue to work to protect the rights of citizens who are being impacted by power infrastructure projects caused by unbridled data center growth.
“Virginia leadership allowed data center growth to severely outpace available power infrastructure and responsible planning,” he said. “In effect, it wrote checks it could not cash. Now, confronted with that reality, there are only two ways to address the shortfall: protect business interests or protect citizens.”
Pennington said the government’s first obligation must be to protect its citizens, but it remains to be seen if that will happen.
“In the meantime, Preserve Orange Alliance will continue working to fill that gap,” he said.
For more information, visit https://preserveorangealliance.org/donate/.
