When can a power company take your land for data center infrastructure? • Hacker News Board

Re: When can a power company take your land for data center infrastructure?

#31

Post by M95D » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 7:13 AM UTC

bob1029 wrote: post #15

usrusr wrote: post #4

Misleading title: they are using eminent domain to seize land for power lines to data centers. (emphasis mine) This is still quite debatable, but so much less so than the implied accusation that they would somehow sell out their privileges as subcontractors for the data centers themselves.

To be even more nuanced, the land is not typically taken entirely. The more typical solution is an easement with compensation for the land owner to cover the reduction in utility. Transmission lines are pretty harmless when considering things that could be built instead. Zero emissions, silent, no illumination, etc.

> Transmission lines are pretty harmless

Debatable. Some studies found this:

https://emfradar.com/articles/power-lines-childhood-leukemia

Then some other studies mostly invalidated that.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41416-018-0097-7

Re: When can a power company take your land for data center infrastructure?

#32

Post by matwood » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 7:14 AM UTC

jaredklewis wrote: post #29

oliwarner wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be used for essential infrastructure for public use . Power lines to a private DC seem to miss on both counts.

We run power lines to everything else: houses, offices, commercial buildings, factories, and so on. Any particular reasons we should have a special exception where we don't run them to data centers? Where I live pretty much every piece of land has some sort of easement on it: for water, power, or something else. Seems weird to me if we can insist that now everything needs to be frozen and no more infrastructure upgra…

Agreed. Since most land is already owned by private individuals do we freeze everything as is and do no further changes [1]?

The last house I lived in had an easement along the back property line. I built my fence on the easement knowing full well they would tear it up if they needed to access anything. I live in a denser town now where the power comes from the street to my house, wraps around my house, then lines to the next building over. I guess I should tell those people in the other building to figure out a different way to get power.

[1] Also feels a bit like the arguments against wind power.

Re: When can a power company take your land for data center infrastructure?

#33

Post by steele » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 7:25 AM UTC

bob1029 wrote: post #15

usrusr wrote: post #4

Misleading title: they are using eminent domain to seize land for power lines to data centers. (emphasis mine) This is still quite debatable, but so much less so than the implied accusation that they would somehow sell out their privileges as subcontractors for the data centers themselves.

To be even more nuanced, the land is not typically taken entirely. The more typical solution is an easement with compensation for the land owner to cover the reduction in utility. Transmission lines are pretty harmless when considering things that could be built instead. Zero emissions, silent, no illumination, etc.

Is the nuance you're contributing here substantiated in the proposals being discussed in the article?

Transmission lines emit EMF which seem pretty harmless unless you're a pollinator or migratory bird. Maybe the home owners are just making a fuss so they can get a better payout to improve the amenities in the bunkers that comprise their subterranean community of concrete beneath the barren badlands of the over-world. At the very least, they should ensure respirators and gaussmeters for able-bodied coal miner minors.

Re: When can a power company take your land for data center infrastructure?

#34

Post by lenkite » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 7:27 AM UTC

jaredklewis wrote: post #29

oliwarner wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be used for essential infrastructure for public use . Power lines to a private DC seem to miss on both counts.

We run power lines to everything else: houses, offices, commercial buildings, factories, and so on. Any particular reasons we should have a special exception where we don't run them to data centers? Where I live pretty much every piece of land has some sort of easement on it: for water, power, or something else. Seems weird to me if we can insist that now everything needs to be frozen and no more infrastructure upgra…

A blank cheque on corpo infrastructure just means that billionaires win and everyone else loses. At that point, just paint "Peasant Slave" on your forehead if you don't have a multi-million lobbying group at the state and federal level.

"All your base are belong to us" => Billionaires of USA

When that happens rename the nation to Corporate States of America as well.

Re: When can a power company take your land for data center infrastructure?

#35

Post by pegasus » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 7:32 AM UTC

toofy wrote: post #16

i definitely have internal debates on the idea of eminent domain and the nuances of wether i think its ok or not. that said, i think i lean to it’s absolutely not ok to use eminent domain when the receivers of the benefits of the taken property are primarily one private industry and its owners. i’d probably more often be ok with it if the benefits were mostly limited to being widely distributed to the people of that…

I feel the same. When those large datacenter projects were being considered, the necessity for building new power lines should have been included in the ask. Instead they built the centers, then "notice" the system is straining and stick the public with the bill and local communities with the consequences. Classic "privatize profits and socialize risks".

Re: When can a power company take your land for data center infrastructure?

#36

Post by johndough » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 7:32 AM UTC

bob1029 wrote: post #15

usrusr wrote: post #4

Misleading title: they are using eminent domain to seize land for power lines to data centers. (emphasis mine) This is still quite debatable, but so much less so than the implied accusation that they would somehow sell out their privileges as subcontractors for the data centers themselves.

To be even more nuanced, the land is not typically taken entirely. The more typical solution is an easement with compensation for the land owner to cover the reduction in utility. Transmission lines are pretty harmless when considering things that could be built instead. Zero emissions, silent, no illumination, etc.

> Zero emissions, silent, no illumination, etc.

Mostly silent. High voltage transmission lines may have a low-frequency hum. You have to stand directly under them to hear it though.

Re: When can a power company take your land for data center infrastructure?

#37

Post by bob1029 » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 7:40 AM UTC

oliwarner wrote: post #27

bob1029 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be even more nuanced, the land is not typically taken entirely. The more typical solution is an easement with compensation for the land owner to cover the reduction in utility. Transmission lines are pretty harmless when considering things that could be built instead. Zero emissions, silent, no illumination, etc.

Pretty harmless? That's easy to say until it's your land and view that now has pylons and restrictions dumped on it.

I've got overhead transmission lines in my back yard right now. It's really not a big deal. I've got a garden and a small shed that are directly underneath the lines. I have no perceptible loss in utility. Every now and then, someone will visit my property but I don't have to interact with them.

The nature of the easement can make a big difference. Oftentimes the power lines will be colocated with gas pipelines which tend to impose stricter requirements on land owners. It's a lot easier to do things like excavate when you can see what you aren't supposed to hit.

Re: When can a power company take your land for data center infrastructure?

#38

Post by throwaway667555 » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 7:42 AM UTC

SuperNinKenDo wrote: post #6

usrusr wrote: post #4

Misleading title: they are using eminent domain to seize land for power lines to data centers. (emphasis mine) This is still quite debatable, but so much less so than the implied accusation that they would somehow sell out their privileges as subcontractors for the data centers themselves.

Actually, strictly speaking, it's /more/ debatable. Using eminent domain to seize land for the data centre itself gets a much more generally negative reaction, while seizing it for the purpose of infrastructure to supply said datacentre - and therefore, at least arguably, alleviate strain on the infrastructure used by everyone else - has more nuance and more room for debate.

Data centers increase strain on the grid, so their supply lines do too.

Re: When can a power company take your land for data center infrastructure?

#39

Post by thrance » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 7:49 AM UTC

Notice how when it comes to the interests of Capital, suddenly regulations or NIMBYs are rendered powerless. Building homes and infrastructure? Impossible. Building datacenters that will be obsolete in 4 years and abandoned just to fuel a speculation bubble? Yessir! Immediately, sir!

Re: When can a power company take your land for data center infrastructure?

#40

Post by throwaway667555 » Mon, Jul 20, 2026, 7:50 AM UTC

bob1029 wrote: post #15

usrusr wrote: post #4

Misleading title: they are using eminent domain to seize land for power lines to data centers. (emphasis mine) This is still quite debatable, but so much less so than the implied accusation that they would somehow sell out their privileges as subcontractors for the data centers themselves.

To be even more nuanced, the land is not typically taken entirely. The more typical solution is an easement with compensation for the land owner to cover the reduction in utility. Transmission lines are pretty harmless when considering things that could be built instead. Zero emissions, silent, no illumination, etc.

They buzz loudly and increase leukemia.