Refuse to sell access to your land for an AI data center transmission line and power companies may force access anyway

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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...

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Source: OpenAI head of ethics Chloé Bakalar departs after less than a year, following exits by the head of safety systems and a former head of mission alignment

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