Protecting Our Environment

The overwhelming consensus among the people of western Prince William is they want to preserve the Rural Crescent while taking care of our farmers; fix Route 28 itself so traffic flows unimpeded from Manassas to Sterling; repair Rollins Ford Road; expand VRE service; prevent environmental damage from overdevelopment and protect property values by banning above-ground transmission lines near their homes.

In 2020, we passed my bill HB 1030 to ban above-ground transmission lines along the Interstate 66 corridor between Gainesville and Haymarket for the rest of this decade in order to encourage our local government to stop allowing bulk-load facilities like data centers to set up shop in Haymarket and Gainesville. Data centers in western Prince William County shouldn’t exist outside of Innovation Park and the ones that are here need to be taxed enough to reduce the tax burden on the residents who have to deal with these facilities destroying the environment, historic resources and property values alike while consuming massive amounts of energy and water.

During my five years in the Virginia General Assembly, I’ve earned 100% ratings from the Virginia chapters of both the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters for my pro-environment voting record. I also don’t accept money from for-profit corporations, their PACs, their lobbyists or their trade associations, so corporate polluters know they can’t count on my vote to harm my constituents’ quality of life or their land, water and air.

The best thing we can do for the environment is to stop bulldozing it and start replenishing it.