By Valerie Cury

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-10) said Tuesday evening, Sept. 1, that federal agencies cited as obstacles to routing the controversial Golden to Mars transmission line along Route 606 were never asked to consider that alternative—and are open to discussing it.

Subramanyam made the comments during a live telephone community update joined by State Sen. Kannan Srinivasan (D-32), Del. JJ Singh (D-26), Loudoun County School Board Chair April Chandler (Algonkian) and Sterling District School Board member Amy Riccardi.

The State Corporation Commission has selected overhead Route 3A for the transmission project, placing the line through the Loudoun Valley Estates community and along school property. The decision is now being appealed to the Supreme Court of Virginia.

But Subramanyam said the alternatives may not be as limited as previously presented.

He has been pushing for an alternative along Route 606 that would move the transmission infrastructure away from homes and schools. Subramanyam said one reason given for not pursuing that route was that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would not allow transmission lines along its federal property.

Subramanyam said he personally checked.

He said the NOAA administrator told him the agency had not previously been approached about placing the transmission line along its property and was willing to work with officials on the possibility.

Subramanyam said he also checked with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority after hearing that the authority would not allow a Route 606 alignment. According to Subramanyam, MWAA told him Dominion Energy had approached the authority about Route 3A, but had not presented Route 606 for consideration.

“All these other options were not actually vetted by federal agencies,” Subramanyam said, adding that the federal agencies appeared willing to work with officials on alternatives.

The congressman said the federal issue is what prompted him to become directly involved in what otherwise is largely a state-regulated transmission case. He said he contacted the agencies himself and learned they had not been consulted about Route 606 and were open to discussing it.

“We’ve been told that federal agencies do not want this on their property, and that is not true,” Subramanyam said.

He said officials are still trying to determine why Route 606 was effectively taken off the table without those discussions occurring.

Subramanyam also questioned why Dominion has not seriously considered alternatives now being advanced.

“I haven’t gotten some good answers” as to why alternative routes would not be considered, he said.

He added that, looking at the alternatives on a map, both the Route 606 proposal and another option being considered by School Board members appeared simpler than Route 3A.

That second possibility involves Westwind Drive.

Riccardi said the School Board has been examining ways to move Routes 3A, 3B and 4 away from school campuses and back into commercial areas. In addition to Route 606, she pointed to the planned Westwind Drive connection between Loudoun County Parkway and Route 606.

The Westwind Drive project was funded and approved as part of a November 2023 referendum. Riccardi said the project would create a four-lane divided road through a commercial area connecting Loudoun County Parkway with Route 606 near the NOAA weather station.

“That is another option that we’re looking at beyond just the 606,” Riccardi said.

The objective, she said, is to give Dominion additional options for moving the transmission line away from the high school and elementary school campuses.

The School Board adopted Policy 6355 in July establishing that transmission lines cannot cross Loudoun County Public Schools property without the School Board’s consent.

Chandler said the larger issue is whether land set aside for public education should be used to accommodate electricity demand driven largely by the data center industry.

“The underlying question, really, at the heart of this is whether or not it is appropriate to take from land that’s set aside for the public good in order to educate schoolchildren,” Chandler said.

Srinivasan and Singh said they also have pressed the SCC to examine Route 606 following its decision selecting Route 3A.

Singh said one of the arguments supporting the appeal is that alternatives along Route 606 “were not thoroughly vetted.”

The Supreme Court appeal also raises questions about the SCC’s rejection of undergrounding.

Srinivasan and Singh successfully sponsored legislation establishing a pilot program for undergrounding certain major transmission lines. The legislation included mechanisms under which a locality could assume a portion of the additional cost, including through revenue from data centers.

The SCC nevertheless concluded that undergrounding the Golden to Mars line was not feasible, citing cost and geological concerns.

Singh said the SCC estimated underground construction could cost $600 to $800 million more than overhead construction. But he pointed to a Loudoun County-commissioned engineering study that found undergrounding technologically feasible and questioned whether the SCC adequately accounted for the funding mechanisms provided under the new law.

Srinivasan also questioned the calculations underlying the SCC’s decision, saying the additional costs cited by the commission did not align with the independent study.

Subramanyam said the SCC’s approach places too much emphasis on what it considers practical rather than what may be possible when homes and schools are at stake.

“We’re dealing with residents’ homes, livelihoods, schools,” he said. “We actually do need to be focused on what is possible.”

For now, Route 3A remains the route selected by the SCC, but the case is not over.

The School Board, Loudoun County Board of Supervisors and others have appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of Virginia. Chandler said the appeal also raises the question of whether property accepted for school purposes can be used for the transmission route without the School Board’s consent.

Officials cautioned that the litigation could take months. An initial filing deadline is expected at the end of October, and Chandler noted that a similar Loudoun case took approximately 11 months.

That leaves time, officials said, for Dominion to discuss alternatives while the litigation proceeds.

Subramanyam said Route 606 and the Westwind Drive alternative share the same fundamental objective of moving the transmission infrastructure away from homes and schools. Based on his discussions with federal officials, the federal government is not standing in the way of exploring Rt. 606.

“I think there’s always an opportunity to do what’s best for the community,” Subramanyam said.

He closed the call by urging residents to remain engaged and Dominion to work more collaboratively with the community and government officials while the case remains before the court.

Subramanyam said he wants Dominion to come to the table and explore alternatives that he believes would be far less invasive than Route 3A.

For Subramanyam, the unanswered question remains why those alternatives were not fully explored before Route 3A was selected.