Virginia residents oppose Golden to Mars transmission line

The Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) is urging Virginia residents to submit comments to the State Corporation Commission (SCC) on Dominion Energy’s proposed 500kV “Golden to Mars” transmission line serving Data Center Alley in eastern Loudoun County.

• PEC testimony and community response: PEC, as an official intervenor, has testified for mitigation measures including undergrounding sections of the 500kV line, alternative designs that meet height restrictions and allow routing closer to the airport, and assigning incremental mitigation costs to high‑load data center customers rather than all ratepayers; more than 1,000 written comments and nearly 600 witnesses registered to testify at SCC hearings through December 19, with the written comment deadline extended to December 30 ahead of an SCC decision expected in January.
• Precedent and rate structure concerns: PEC argues this is a precedent‑setting case because data center power demand is unprecedented and large‑voltage lines are being routed through dense suburban neighborhoods, warning that unrestricted data center development without state oversight will require more such lines statewide and that, under the current rate structure, all residential and small‑business ratepayers subsidize expensive transmission infrastructure for future data centers not yet in operation.