by Mary Eiserman | Mar 10, 2025 | Dominion, News Reports
Below are links to information about a 765-kilovolt (kV) transmission line to be built between Fauquier and Campbell counties. As of Friday, the route had not been published, but the third link below has a map where the line will most likely go. Assuming this is the route, it does not look like it will come through Nelson, but we should pay attention to this.
Dominion Energy Newsroom
Larger transmission towers coming to Northern Virginia | News | fauquier.com
Fauquier County 2025 Updates – The Piedmont Environmental Council
information compiled by Susan McSwain for Friends of Nelson
by Mary Eiserman | Mar 9, 2025 | Events
Nelson has published dates for 2025 Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) & Special Collections.
Collections will be at the Ivy Materials Utilization Center, and will be held 9am-3pm on:
- Spring 2025
- Friday, April 25, 2025
- Saturday, April 26, 2025
- Fall 2025
- Friday, September 19, 2025
- Saturday, September 20, 2025
You can view it from this link : https://www.nelsoncounty-va.gov/household-hazardous-waste-hhw-special-collections-2025-spring-fall-dates/
Nelson County residents will need a voucher to participate. Vouchers can be obtained at any of the staffed collection sites, County Administration office or contact Sue Baker, Recycling Coordinator, at sbaker@nelsoncounty.org.
by Mary Eiserman | Mar 3, 2025 | News Reports
Federal workforce cuts could create unemployment levels in Northern Virginia not seen in living memory. That’s a potential problem for rural Virginia. – Cardinal News
The biggest geographical source of income tax in Virginia comes from Northern Virginia. In all, the D.C. suburbs account for about 40% of the state’s revenue, so anything that’s state-funded, from schools to roads to prisons ultimately owes a lot of its funding to the economic health of Northern Virginia. Rural school systems get most of their funding from the state, and the biggest source of state funding is the income tax.
For additional statistics, visit Northern Virginia’s population decline is a problem for the whole state – Cardinal News
The biggest single source of tax revenue in Virginia is the individual income tax; 67% of general fund revenue comes from personal income taxes. Fairfax County alone accounts for 22% of the state’s taxable income, according to the annual report from the state’s tax commissioner. Altogether, Northern Virginia accounts for 40% of the state’s taxable income. The bottom line: Northern Virginia is subsidizing rural school systems (and lots of other things).
Information compiled by Susan McSwain
by Mary Eiserman | Mar 3, 2025 | Friends of Nelson
Three organizations – Brown University, Internews (a California-based nonprofit that supports independent media), and Press Forward (a grant-making organization that supports local news media) – have joined together to devise a measurement tool called the Civic Information Index. Using 21 data points, the Index gives every county and independent city in the U.S. a “civic health” score.
The Index – Civic Information Index
The numerous data sets used to determine the scores include such items as the percentage of households with access to broadband, number of library visits, access to health care, voter turn-out, charitable giving, life expectancy, poverty rate, and the number of news outlets in each county.
You can zoom in on any county for the score.
Here are the scores for Nelson on a scale of 0 – 100.
Overall Index percentile: 68
News and Information percentile: 46
Civic Participation percentile: 58
Equity and Justice percentile: 90
Health and Opportunity percentile: 75
by Mary Eiserman | Feb 26, 2025 | Clean Energy
Virginia stands to be a world leader in electricity produced from a fusion power plant in Chesterfield:
World’s First Grid-Scale Fusion Power Plant Coming to Virginia
According to Wikipedia, fusion power promises to provide more energy for a given weight of fuel than any fuel-consuming energy source currently in use. Learn how it works and read about its advantages and drawbacks: Fusion power – Wikipedia.
In May 2023, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) provided a grant of $46 million to eight companies across seven states to support fusion power plant design and research efforts to develop fusion as a carbon-neutral energy source by 2050.
One of the recipient firms is Commonwealth Fusion Systems.
Powering up Virginia: World’s first grid-scale commercial fusion power plant
Wise County is being considered as the location for a second fusion power plant:
Fusion energy offers opportunity to reimagine Wise County’s energy future – Cardinal News
information compiled by Susan McSwain
