CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - A roughly $1 billion electric transmission line project could soon cover about 115 miles of land in Central Virginia, stretching from Campbell County to Culpeper County. Valley Link, a joint venture between Dominion Energy, FirstEnergy Transmission, LLC, and Transource Energy, LLC, is planning the Joshua Falls-Yeat Transmission Line Project, at 765 kilovolts, the highest-capacity power lines in the state and the nation. “What we’re trying to do w

Families won’t see relief from rising electricity prices anytime soon, as demand from artificial intelligence data centers soars while power supply grows slowly, according to Goldman Sachs. Electricity prices jumped 6.9% in 2025 year over year, more than double the headline inflation rate of 2.9%, Goldman analysts told clients in a research note published Wednesday. Prices will continue to rise through the end of the decade, as data centers make up 40% of electricity demand g

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Several bills aimed at reforming Virginia’s rapidly growing data center industry are failing to advance in the General Assembly. More than 50 data center–related bills were introduced this session, targeting issues such as state oversight, transparency and ratepayer protections. But several key proposals have already stalled or been killed in committee, even as public concern over the industry’s expansion continues to grow. “The public is confident that

Will this be the year the Virginia General Assembly takes action to rein in unconstrained data center development? To date, our state leaders have failed to protect Virginians from the short- and long-term effects of reckless data center growth. Currently, there is no overarching state plan to manage the cumulative impacts on our energy costs, our air quality and our natural resources. Until meaningful reform legislation is passed, Virginia needs to pause all approvals of new

Over the past few years, millions of Americans have seen their electricity bills skyrocket. Since February 2020, electricity prices have increased by an average of 40 percent across the country. In some areas, the rate is even faster — in Washington, D.C., electricity costs increased 93 percent from July 2020 to July 2025. But the rise in costs hasn’t affected each type of user equally. According to recent data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), residential ele