Cold and blustery, house explosion report, data center opposition, DOGE’s impact

Loudoun County is opposing a potential new Amazon data center that could be built on the site of the former George Washington University Ashburn campus. Buddy Riser, Loudoun County's director of economic development, says the county has tried for 20 years to keep data centers off Route 7 where the GW campus is located, due to the presence of nearby housing and mixed-use development. Riser says the county would challenge any effort by Amazon to build a data center there, as it does not believe the property can be used for data centers "by right" and the company would need approval from the Board of Supervisors, which he does not expect they would receive. Separately, a new NTSB report provides details about a natural gas explosion that destroyed a home in Centreville, Virginia last month. The report says a resident had reported a strong odor of gas on the morning of the blast, and a Washington Gas crew was later repairing a serious leak in a 6-inch gas main when the home on Quail Pond Court exploded. The leak was traced to where the gas main crossed under large Williams natural gas transmission pipelines. The full gas supply was not turned off for 3 hours after the explosion, adding to the day-long evacuation of 46 homes in the area.