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WTF?! The government really isn't helping itself in its effort to reverse the public's anti-data center feelings. A new report highlights how, when private citizens refuse to sell access to their land for these facilities' transmission lines, power companies can sometimes use legal authority that allows private property rights to be taken without a landowner's consent.
While 70% of Americans are now opposed to data centers being built near their homes, it's not just the enormous, pollution-and-noise-spewing buildings they're against. There's also the required new power infrastructure, such as transmission lines that often need to cross private property.
In these situations, power companies often try to purchase an easement from the owner, allowing the infrastructure to cross part of the property. One assumes that if the owner refuses, that would be the end of the matter, but The Conversation writes that utilities may be able to force the acquisition through eminent domain.
