SCC Ignores Pleas To Defer Ruling, Approves Controversial Golden To Mars Power Line Route

ASHBURN, VA – Virginia’s State Corporation Commission has released a final order approving a controversial route for a new transmission line that will cut across the county.

Finally deciding on a route for Dominion Energy’s new transmission lines has been a contentious process, with community members and the Loudoun County School Board resisting the various proposed routes over concerns about public health, environmental protection, student safety, property values, quality of life and other issues.

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The school board, the homeowners' association and other residents had called for the power lines to be buried, which the SCC and Dominion have continually rejected.

The SCC had favored one of the shortest proposed routes, Route 4, which it said would be least disruptive to area residents, but which would cross property belonging to a public high school and elementary school, leaving the school board with the power to block the route.

With that route blocked, the SCC decided to approve Route 3a, which it called “by every objective measure … clearly inferior.” However, Route 3a did not cross LCPS property and therefore could not be blocked by the school.

A homeowners group opposed to the project, the Loudoun Valley Estates Homeowners Association, in June donated a block of its land that Route 3a would traverse to the school board, which the board accepted on June 23, Loudoun Now reported. The school board and the county, the next day, called on the SCC to defer its final order until August.

The SCC order does not appear to reference the land transfer.

Ashburn residents had appealed a previous decision by the SCC that running the powerlines underground would be impractical. In a June 2 order on the case, the SCC noted that its April order was explicitly not a final order and therefore not eligible for that type of challenge.

It’s not yet known if the Ashburn homeowners groups will attempt to challenge this order on the same grounds: that state law has changed, and running the powerlines underground as a pilot program could be feasible. In the spring, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed into law a bill allowing for four pilot projects to build electrical transmission lines of 500 kilovolts underground and authorizing the SCC to approve and expedite the review of such applications.

Loudoun Now reports that there is a 20-day window to file a motion for reconsideration, and that the ruling could also be appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court.

The Golden to Mars project is one of three projects Dominion Energy has pursued to meet the data center load in the Ashburn area, or "Data Center Alley." The two other connecting projects are Wishing Star to Mars and Aspen to Golden.

Ashburn residents have been fighting the proposed 230- and 500-kilovolt power lines, which would be strung along poles 165 feet tall or taller, since the project became public.