Data centers in Virginia ordered to pay for transmission upgrades 3&5AUG26

 FINALLY politicians have decided they better start listening to their constituents if they want to remain in office. The only concern I have is " the SCC is ordering Dominion to develop a policy that requires data centers to pay for the upgrades if new substations and transmission lines are used exclusively for data centers. " So if an existing substation that is supplying power to data centers, other businesses, schools and residents is upgraded that cost can be applied to all customers not just the data centers? And will the same be true for additional transmission lines? If so that seems it will be an easy out for data centers to not pay the full cost for upgrades. Governor Spanberger should also order the SCC to work out options for Dominion to refund at least half if not all the rate increases without granting  them any kind of tax break to cover the refunds. We need to keep up the pressure on Gov Spanberger, the Virginia legislators and the SCC on all these issues. This from WSET ABC13 News in Lynchburg, VA.....

Data centers in Virginia ordered to pay for transmission upgrades

by Nick Minock

Wed, August 5, 2026 at 3:02 PM

Updated Wed, August 5, 2026 at 5:20 PM

ARLINGTON, Va. (7News) — Virginia state regulators ordered data centers to cover the cost of power grid upgrades for the growing data center industry.

This new development comes after Governor Abigail Spanberger’s administration got involved.

Governor Spanberger’s administration sent a letter to regulators urging them to require data centers to shoulder the costs of transmission line upgrades, so Virginians don’t have to.

Dominion Energy has over 200 transmission line projects in the works to upgrade Virginia’s power infrastructure and meet the demands of the more than 600 power-hungry data centers.

To pay for the upgrades, Dominion asked the State Corporation Commission (SCC) in Richmond to allow the utility company to increase your electricity bill each month.

But now, the SCC is ordering Dominion to develop a policy that requires data centers to pay for the upgrades if new substations and transmission lines are used exclusively for data centers.

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger celebrated the SCC’s new order.

“I am proud that after my administration urged state regulators to protect Virginia families and small businesses from shouldering the cost of new transmission infrastructure meant to serve data centers, the SCC listened,” said Governor Spanberger. “This order — which is projected to save Virginians hundreds of millions of dollars — makes sure that data centers are paying the full cost of the transmission infrastructure their developments require.”

“It is hard to understate the importance of this decision from the SCC for Virginia families and businesses,” said Chief Energy Officer Josephus Allmond. “Instead of spreading transmission costs caused directly by data centers across all ratepayers, now data centers will pay for those costs directly. The Spanberger Administration remains laser-focused on ensuring data centers are paying their fair share and commends the Commission for this vanguard decision.”

On Wednesday, 7News reached out to Dominion Energy for the company’s response to this new development.

Right now, a bi-partisan group of lawmakers are urging the governor to call a special session to address Virginia’s energy needs and Dominion Energy’s proposed merger with NextEra.

Lt. Gov. Hashmi wants regulators at the SCC to take twice as long as they typically do to review the Dominion-NextEra merger to ensure critical questions are answered.

“What is the public benefit of this acquisition?” asked Hashmi. “What does it mean for us as consumers here in Virginia? What does it mean for the reliability of our grid? What does it mean for our ability to meet the growing demands of energy that we have in Virginia? So changing the lens of focus, the standards by which we go through this process, I think, is really important.”

Hashmi says the current regulatory standards the SCC considers need updating for proposals like this.

“Our regulatory guidelines were written essentially in 1940,” said Hashmi. “So if you think about the vast contrast between 1940 electric utility structures and what we are facing today in 2026, it's a century of difference.”

Dominion Energy told 7News on Wednesday that "Under the SCC’s oversight, we already have among the strongest protections in the country to prevent data center driven costs from being borne by our residential customers. When we file our amended line extension policy, we will be adding even more protections for our residential customers to ensure our more energy intensive customers continue to pay their fair share."

READ ALSO | Data center developers are eyeing a potential location in Fairfax County

SEE MORE | Spotsylvania residents push back on data centers and the county’s low data center tax

MORE | 7News sits down with Sen. Louise Lucas, who is fighting to scrap data center tax breaks

MORE | High voltage transmission line proposed in Spotsylvania, Orange, Culpeper gets pushback

REAL ALSO | Loudoun County schools taking transmission line fight to Virginia Supreme Court

MORE | Virginia's Lt. Gov. Hashmi skeptical of Dominion merge with Nextera, citing concerns

SEE ALSO | Concerns grow as Prince William County leaders consider a dozen data centers

MORE | Residents along path of proposed transmission line pushback on project in Culpeper

Virginia Gov. Spanberger signs, makes amendments to gun safety laws 14APR26

 THANK GOD we no longer have a commonwealth assembly and governor afraid of and / or bought by the nra!!!

Virginia Gov. Spanberger signs, makes amendments to gun safety laws

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger has signed and amended a series of gun bills, fulfilling her campaign promise to tighten gun safety.

The measures Spanberger signed into law include a bill requiring guns be locked away when left in vehicles, a statewide ban on so-called "ghost guns" and a bill allowing gun makers to be held legally accountable in certain cases of gun violence.

"It's a historic win not just for Virginia. ... When we elect change-makers that share our values around gun safety, then change happens," Kelly Johnson with Moms Demand Action told News4.

State Sen. Dave Marsden sponsored the bill making it a Class 4 misdemeanor with a $250 fine if gun owners don’t lock up their handguns on the road, either in a locked glove box, console or specially designed container affixed to the vehicle.

Marsden said criminals, especially teens, are increasingly getting their weapons from vehicles before committing crimes.

"Our cars have become shopping carts for kids," he said. "To treat this as a criminal offense will send a message out there that you need to be responsible, and if you want a gun in your car, go to the expense of doing it the right way."

Spanberger also put her mark on several high-profile measures, adding amendments late Monday night.

Her office said she changed an assault weapons ban to exclude certain semi-automatic weapons used for hunting. The assault weapons legislation does not apply to firearms or magazines lawfully owned before July 1, 2026.

She also amended the bill requiring guns be stored and locked in homes with minors to allow a gun locking device that makes the weapon inoperable.

In another bill, Spanberger added language to raise the handgun purchase age from 18 to 21, with exceptions for members of the military or people in law enforcement training.

Gun rights organizations are promising immediate court challenges, hoping to block some of the changes.

In their sights in particular: the assault weapons ban.

"We’ll be ready to meet them at the court steps. The lawsuits are drafted. The support from the Department of Justice, their civil rights division, is there and we’ll look forward to our day in court to right these wrongs," John Commerford with the National Rifle Association said.

Commerford said the new restrictions hurt Virginians who are already following the law.

"It's just continuing to put limits on the population in the state that is the most law abiding," he said. "They're continuing to focus of reducing the constitutional rights of Virginians across the Commonwealth."

Lawmakers will decide whether to sign off on Spanberger's amendments when they reconvene next week.

Correction (April 15, 2026): An earlier version of this article misstated the name of John Commerford with the National Rifle Association.

Virginia Governor Ends Tax Breaks for Confederate Groups 14APR26

 

WAY COOL AND WELL DONE VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH ASSEMBLY!!! DooDuh, DooDuh you feeckin confederate traitors!!! These are overdue actions making things right for all Americans. From the New York Times.....

Navy removes Confederate name from Naval Academy building 17FEB23

Virginia Governor Ends Tax Breaks for Confederate Groups

The new law signed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger is the culmination of a long, Democrat-led push to distance Virginia from its Confederate past.

By Anna Venarchik

Anna Venarchik has been reporting across the South on the Confederacy’s legacy since 2020.

April 14, 2026

Gov. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia has signed into law a bill to end tax exemptions for a slate of Confederacy-related organizations in the state.

The signing by Ms. Spanberger on Monday is the culmination of a yearslong Democrat-led push to shake off the state’s legacy as the capital of the 11 Southern, slaveholding states that seceded from the country in the 1860s.

The new law’s most significant target is the United Daughters of the Confederacy, founded in 1894 for descendants of Confederates. The organization’s stated purpose is to honor the members’ ancestors through, among other things, working with homeless shelters, food banks and other civic groups. Throughout its history, the group built hundreds of Confederate memorials around the country, which have become flash points for protests over historical memory and racial injustices in the last decade.

In the past, the organization has said that losing the decades-old tax breaks could hinder its ability to maintain its headquarters in Richmond and carry out its operations.

Governor Spanberger, a Democrat, was elected in November by a wide margin and took office in January. She has described her victory as a referendum on the Trump administration, which has been aggressively moving to restore some Confederate symbols that were taken down in recent years.

In the General Assembly, where Democrats control both chambers, the House voted 62 to 35, and the Senate 21 to 17, to pass the legislation. This is the third consecutive year that Delegate Alex Askew has sponsored a version of the bill, which he said was an important step toward making state law align with modern values.

“Governor Spanberger’s signing of this bill is a proud moment and an important step forward for Virginia,” he said in a statement on Monday.

Representatives for the United Daughters of the Confederacy did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement in February, Julie Hardaway, the president of the national organization, said the bill “reeks of discrimination, based on misguided and biased opinions of our great philanthropic organization.”

Of particular concern to the group is its marble-walled headquarters in Richmond. It sits on property that the state deeded the group in 1950, but the terms stipulate that if the organization can no longer maintain the site, it will revert to the state.

The total property is valued at about $4.7 million, which according to the city’s rate would make the annual property tax over $57,000. The organization had about $2.1 million in revenue and about $1.1 million in expenses in 2025, according to a tax filing.

In 2020, the building sustained millions of dollars in damage when demonstrators set it ablaze during violence after George Floyd’s murder.

Two other Democrat-led bills targeting the Confederacy’s legacy also made it to Governor Spanberger’s desk. One, which she sent back to the Assembly with recommendations, would establish a task force at the Virginia Military Institute. The panel would be expected to, among other things, recommend ways the college could distance itself from the “Lost Cause,” a sanitized narrative about the Confederacy that has been propagated as fact throughout much of Southern history. The other bill discontinues specialty license plates that feature Robert E. Lee and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. It was signed into law by the governor last week.

Frank Earnest, a spokesman for the Virginia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said it was “terrible” that the Lee plate would be discontinued and that it was an issue of free speech.

“I could go down to the D.M.V. right now and point out some fact about every plate there that I didn’t like,” he said. “So if we’re going to cancel every plate because somebody out there doesn’t like it, we might as well just cancel the whole program.”

Virginia’s place at the center of Confederate history has stirred tension and anger for years. Efforts to remove Confederate memorials intensified after the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017 and accelerated in 2020, when Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, signed a bill that gave local governments the authority to alter their Confederate symbols. His Republican successor, Glenn Youngkin, however, twice vetoed versions of the tax bill and said targeting specific groups by revoking exemptions would set “an inappropriate precedent.”

The issue continues to play out in other ways across the state. For example, Shenandoah County is awaiting a judge’s decision over whether Black students’ rights were violated when the school board restored the names of Confederate generals to two schools, after they were dropped in 2020.

And at the federal level, the Trump administration announced that a Confederate memorial that was removed in 2023 would be returned to Arlington National Cemetery, a restoration that will reportedly cost $10 million.

Across the U.S. With The Times

Our reporters are exploring how America defines itself.

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• Go Inside ‘The Brady Bunch’ House: While only its exterior ever appeared in the TV show, stepping into the real-life Brady house now is like going back in time.

• Prepping for the End of the World: Homesteading evokes a frontier America. But these days, it means having the skills to grow your food, survive off the grid, if necessary, and take care of family and community.

• $400 Bibles: The growing interest in premium Bibles includes a wide array of translations assembled with high-quality materials, like genuine leather covers, and in many cases extras like elaborate color illustrations.

• Siblings Raising Children: When undocumented parents are detained by ICE agents, children who are American citizens are often left to raise each other.