KY county needs residents to promote their land for large, mysterious new improvement

MAYSVILLE — Below a setting July solar, 30 pissed off farmers and landowners gathered within the shade of a neighbor’s storage. They unfolded garden chairs, shared cool bottles of water and commenced buying and selling grievances and hypothesis a couple of cash-rich new improvement with its sights on their land.

The issue was, no one fairly knew what the event was, who owned it, or when it could come.

Since fall, a minimum of seven residents throughout a 5,000-acre space exterior Maysville have been approached by Mason County officers who inspired them to promote their land for an unspecified industrial improvement venture.

However those self same officers couldn’t reply questions concerning the improvement as a result of they signed confidentiality agreements with the unnamed firm behind the venture, which additional spurred rumors: Was it a photo voltaic farm? A penitentiary? A landfill?

The group included the Huddlestons, who reluctantly agreed to promote their land, seated beside the Grossers, who adamantly refused. Others are nonetheless deciding whether or not they need to maintain onto the farmland their households have owned for generations or money in whereas they’ll.

However all of them agreed on one factor.

“One thing this huge shouldn’t be saved quiet,” stated Max Moran, standing within the semicircle of group members within the final slant of night mild.

Determined for a solution, residents began piecing collectively clues. Neighbors cross-referenced info that officers let slip — the venture, no matter it was, would want big quantities of water, which might clarify its proximity to the Ohio River.

In Might, after scouring by way of on-line public data, they found a new buyer was requesting service from the East Kentucky Energy Cooperative (EKPC) for a 2.2 gigawatt venture in Mason County, almost doubling its annual technology capability.

Spring gave approach to summer time and, lastly, residents linked sufficient dots to uncover the mysterious new buyer: a hyperscale information middle.

The state legislature handed a measure earlier this 12 months granting tax exemptions for sure information middle tasks, making the state a sexy place to construct.

Many communities are scrambling for them, hopeful the income they generate will jumpstart native economies. However some residents are cautious about the best way information facilities are spreading throughout the state with little public enter. Landowners fear it should change the material of their group and push out households who’ve lived there for hundreds of years.

Staci Wooden Clements, who lives on a Mason County farm, worries that after the farmland is turned over for improvement, it’ll be gone perpetually, and {that a} information middle gained’t deliver farmers a lot in return.

“ I am not anti-technology in any respect, however I am tremendous skeptical when one thing rolls in and it feels prefer it has extra whispers, extra authorized muscle, than group help,” Clements stated. “ When farmers are advised that their land is extra precious as concrete than soil … that issues me.”

Information facilities 101

Lured to rural areas by the promise of low cost land, information middle tasks have sprung up throughout the nation. Like a sport of whack-a-mole, some proposals seem, draw opposition, and get shut down, as was the case in Oldham County not too long ago. Others transfer forward, together with the state’s first hyperscale information middle being inbuilt south Louisville.

Information facilities are conglomerations of warehouses storing hundreds of pc servers. These servers maintain the community of data that makes up the digital cloud accessed by the rising variety of internet-enabled units.

More and more, information facilities are being constructed to host synthetic intelligence platforms from corporations together with Meta and Google, accelerating the demand for large quantities of energy.

Within the previous decade, information middle vitality utilization has tripled and it’s anticipated to take action once more in simply the subsequent three years, in response to a report from the U.S. Division of Power. That demand is shortly outpacing capability in states like Virginia, the place bigger and extra clustered information facilities pressure native grids and transmission strains.

Utilities like EKPC are being flooded with information middle venture proposals. Paperwork uncovered by Mason County residents and The Courier Journal present the Kentucky energy firm has been exploring the potential for a large-scale information middle that can demand rising quantities of energy, beginning at 110 megawatts in December 2026 and rising to 2,200 by 2031.

The close by H.L. Spurlock coal-fired energy plant is the corporate’s largest, supplying energy to 1.1 million folks. Nonetheless, it produces solely 1,346 megawatts of vitality.

With almost a thousand extra megawatts to make up, EKPC put out a name for assist in June. The utility is searching for vitality provide choices, like pure fuel, that will “serve a selected new giant load addition that EKPC is now in definitive discussions to provide,” in response to a request for proposals revealed in June by EKPC and ACES, a nationwide vitality administration firm.

All of the whereas, the utility’s unnamed “new buyer” has been scoping out a swath of land for its 2,200 megawatt venture.

‘I’m not promoting’

Final fall, Tim Grosser was seeing sufferers at his physician’s workplace when he stated he acquired a name from Mason County Choose- Govt Owen McNeil.

In accordance with Grosser, McNeil requested him to come back downtown to debate the potential for shopping for his land. Appearing as a intermediary, McNeil defined that the county would provide him a $500 test for the choice to purchase his land anytime within the subsequent 12 months for $15,000 an acre for a possible industrial improvement venture.

Since 1988, Grosser has owned land that straddles a wooded two-lane highway — 250 acres simply exterior Maysville, with rolling hay fields and a herd of cattle. On one aspect, a winding switchback leads as much as the cow pasture, vine-braided barns, and an outdated brick farmhouse he makes use of as a looking outpost. On the opposite aspect, his son, Andy, lives in a newly constructed house.

Throughout his assembly with McNeil, Tim Grosser wasn’t advised what sort of industrial venture it could be or who was behind it. When he pressed for particulars, he stated McNeil didn’t give a transparent reply. The decide government had signed a non-disclosure settlement (NDA) concerning the venture.

After listening to McNeil’s pitch, Grosser made up his thoughts. “I’m not promoting,” he stated.

Within the months following the preliminary provide, McNeil known as just a few extra instances with a brand new price ticket, Grosser stated. The farm being simply as a lot his as his son’s, he advised McNeil to present his son a name. McNeil did, convincing Andy Grosser to satisfy downtown with him and Tyler McHugh, the Maysville-Mason County Industrial Growth Authority director.

“I attempt to give all people a good shot, so I went down and talked,” Andy Grosser stated. Once more, they supplied restricted info on what was going to be constructed and supplied a test for the choice to purchase his land within the subsequent 12 months. This time, they doubled the value per acre to $30,000, Andy Grosser stated.

After he graduated from Morehead State College, the place he studied agriculture and engineering, Andy took over caring for the farm. 5 years in the past, he constructed a home on the plot, moved his household there, and deliberate to handle the small herd of cattle and acres of land.

“It was one thing we had been going to do collectively,” Andy stated of his father.

Nonetheless skeptical, however curious to study extra, the daddy and son met with the county as soon as extra this spring, hoping for particulars.

“I wish to know what you’re eager to do right here,” Tim Grosser stated, on the finish of his persistence. In the event that they wished extra info, they had been advised they may signal non-disclosure agreements and a few of their questions might be answered.

Anticipating these solutions, Tim Grosser reached for the doc, however his son grabbed his hand and pulled it away. “We’re not signing something,” Andy Grosser advised them.

In an interview with The Courier Journal, McNeil spoke typically concerning the financial wants of the county and the alternatives going through residents who had been approached to promote their land, however he didn’t reply questions concerning the improvement, citing the NDA he signed. McHugh stated not one of the landowners he met with had many questions, and people who did signed NDA’s and talked with the venture’s workforce.

Energy demand means fossil fuels – and air pollution

Throughout the nation, states are turning to completely different vitality sources to energy an rising variety of information facilities.

Some, like Texas, wish to repurpose unused renewable vitality from wind generators. However photo voltaic and wind initiatives are sometimes met with native resistance in farming communities, together with in Mason County, the place residents organized to push out industrial photo voltaic farms in 2022.

In lots of circumstances, with nice energy calls for comes a deeper reliance on the nation’s go-to vitality supply: fossil fuels. Utilities are delaying the retirement of coal-fired energy crops by retrofitting them to burn pure fuel. And in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, greater than 20,000 megawatts of pure gas-powered crops at the moment are set to open by 2040, in response to the Institute of Power Economics and Monetary Evaluation.

In Kentucky, regardless of the addition of some renewable vitality alternate options, 68% of the state’s energy continues to be coal-based, stated Lane Boldman, director of the Kentucky Conservation Committee, an environmental advocacy group. However utilities similar to EKPC are increasing into pure fuel, too.

Each their Spurlock and John Sherman Cooper crops had been not too long ago authorised to construct new pure gas-fired models and convert a few of their outdated infrastructure into multi-use crops that burn fuel and coal.

Although pure fuel is billed as “cleaner vitality,” Boldman stated it is nonetheless a serious polluter.

“ I do know everybody’s excited concerning the AI increase,” Boldman stated, “however there is a price to it as nicely.”

Publicity to air air pollution from burning fossil fuels is related with a slew of well being points together with coronary heart illness, most cancers and respiratory diseases. Energy crops emit particulate matter, which harms fenceline communities essentially the most, but in addition travels to different areas on the wind.

In a 2007 settlement between EKPC and the U.S. Environmental Safety Company, the utility spent $650 million on new air pollution controls after violating the Clear Air Act at two of its energy crops, together with Spurlock.

Now, EKPC will be capable to side-step new federal rules for sure air pollution, like mercury, after they utilized for and had been granted exemptions when President Donald Trump invited utilities to use in March.

EKPC declined a number of requests for remark.

‘I’ve lived right here all my life’

Ida Ruth Huddleston retains a group of ceramic birds and squirrels — items from her grandchildren and an homage to the critters that run round her farm alongside deer and coyotes. They line the cabinets of the wood partitions round the home she constructed together with her husband.

In 1978, they used lumber from their land to construct a three-story cabin, and stones from the close by creek for the hearth. Since earlier than the Civil Conflict, her household has lived on the land round Large Pond Street. She grew up on tobacco fields and raised her youngsters on them, too. However now, Huddleston and her daughter, Delsia Naked, reside in the home collectively alone. Widowed from their husbands, they give the impression of being after one another.

Someday in Might, Chuck Marshall, an area actual property agent, confirmed up at their door, Naked stated. He, too, was working with the county on behalf of the mysterious new vitality buyer. He supplied them a contract after which a warning: In the event that they didn’t promote their land, EKPC would possibly be capable to take it utilizing eminent area.

Utility corporations have used eminent area to grab land earlier than. In Virginia, the so-called “information middle capital of the nation,” Dominion Power invoked it in opposition to a farmer after they had been trying to construct transmission strains in April.

Rising up, Naked watched her mother and father’ farmland get portioned off by eminent area when the county claimed a few of it for a landfill.

“Right here they arrive once more,” Huddleston thought, “wanting the entire complete factor now.”

On the finish of Might, the county circled again.

“If we take the cash, it hurts our neighbors,” Naked stated.

Nonetheless agonized over their determination, they took the deal as a result of they felt like that they had little alternative. They wished to get forward of what they could stand to lose, in order that they signed the contracts, not sure of precisely what their land may be used for.

She and Naked don’t know the place they’ll go if the county makes good on its provide. At 81 years outdated and almost 40 years in the identical home, Huddleston can’t think about dwelling anyplace else.

“Everyone thinks they personal a bit of land. They personal this, they personal that. They don’t personal any of it;, God’s simply letting you employ it for a short while you’re down right here,” Huddleston stated. “’Course I hate to present it up whereas I’m dwelling.”

Marshall, who signed an NDA concerning the improvement, declined to remark.

‘One of many largest corporations on the planet’

Early on the morning of July 15, the Grossers stood within the doorway of a packed room at a county constructing in Maysville. Andy Grosser used trip time to attend the Fiscal Courtroom assembly along with his youngest daughter, Mallory, in tow. He stood in a throng of acquainted faces carrying a shirt that learn, “America wants farmers.”

The information middle venture wasn’t on the agenda for the day, however residents who knew about it hoped to voice their opposition and ask for transparency from their elected officers. Moran, who organized “We’re Mason County,” a Fb group the place he posts info associated to the event, spoke first.

“Have you ever signed a non-disclosure settlement?” Moran requested the board.

“I’m presently below 12 to 14 non-disclosure agreements,” stated McNeil, the judge-executive.

District Commissioners Chris O’Hearn and Joe McKay, who sit on the Fiscal Courtroom, each stated they’d signed NDAs. Commissioner Peggy Body stated she hadn’t.

“Who is that this entity?” Moran requested, urgent additional.

“The vast majority of these we’re speaking to are American corporations,” McNeil stated.

Sitting throughout from the commissioners, County Lawyer John Estill wouldn’t verify plans for a knowledge middle, however he advised the gang that if a venture progressed far sufficient alongside, residents can be concerned in county discussions about financing and zoning adjustments. He stated county initiatives in later levels would come with public enter, however a plan within the very early levels necessitated confidentiality to guard a enterprise’ proprietary info.

“ There is a time for this dialogue, there’s a time for solutions,” Estill stated. “I pray we get to that day.”

In a nook of the room, standing with the onlookers, McHugh, the pinnacle of the Maysville-Mason County Industrial Growth Authority, noticed the proceedings quietly. Close to the tip, prompted by McNeil on a query about renewable vitality, he stepped ahead and spoke up from the again row.

“I’ll be proper right here after this assembly,” he stated over the pissed off crowd. “I’ll be glad to speak to anyone.”

After public remark ended, the unhappy group funneled out of the constructing. Landowners carrying ball caps and boots huddled round McHugh, who met them on the road in his blue swimsuit. There, below a beating solar, he lastly confirmed what that they had lengthy suspected: The EKPC’s potential “new buyer” was a knowledge middle.

He did not cease there. The corporate is surveying about 5,000 acres close to Large Pond and Tuckahoe roads to see what the most effective match can be and keep away from areas like Beasley Cemetery and smaller personal graveyards, McHugh stated. It could in the end use roughly half of that acreage for its information middle campus. All in all, he’s been advised the venture would make use of 400 folks within the county for the long run.

At 2.2 gigawatts and round 2,500 acres, equal to 4 sq. miles, the information middle can be comparable in dimension and scope to current AI information facilities like Amazon’s in Indiana. The venture wouldn’t deliver photo voltaic farms to the world, he stated. He advised the gang the county had no intention of utilizing eminent area.

And whereas he refused to reveal the title of the “new buyer,” McHugh supplied some clues.

“This isn’t your typical 95% of information facilities,” he stated. “This can be a Fortune 20 firm, one of many largest corporations on the planet.”

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Only the start

Alongside county roads, vibrant purple yard indicators are multiplying. They learn, “No information middle. Not right here. Not now. By no means.”

In close by Germantown, residents ducked right into a church basement below low-hanging fluorescent lights. They had been a part of “We’re Mason County,” the group that began on-line and now has almost 1,000 members.

On that wet Sunday, 35 of them gathered to dissect what they’d heard on the Fiscal Courtroom assembly earlier within the week and to plot their subsequent steps.

Jason Sheppeck, who helped arrange in opposition to photo voltaic farms within the county just a few years in the past, outlined a plan of motion. Moran’s mom, Laura, and others scribbled notes, able to take part in a municipal campaign they know will not be simply gained.

Standing on the entrance of the room, subsequent to a portrait of Jesus, Moran honed in on his message. The land left over within the state, and within the county, is restricted, and he doesn’t wish to see it spent on a covert county initiative with little public help.

“They don’t make land no extra,” he stated, repeating an outdated household adage.

Over the sound of impassioned chattering and the AC’s intermittent cranking, one prevailing query loomed over the group sheltering from the dreary night exterior: What billionaire company is behind the mysterious information middle?

They hope they’ll by no means have to search out out.

Extra: Kentucky is welcoming a knowledge middle increase. However what are the environmental prices?

This text is a part of a collaboration between The Courier Journal and Boyd’s Station, a Kentucky non-profit that gives rising artists and scholar journalists a rural place to hone their craft. Sarah Henry acquired the 2025 Mary Withers Rural Writing Fellowship grant at Boyd’s Station.

This text initially appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: KY county needs residents to promote land for mysterious improvement