The artificial intelligence boom in the United States is being matched by a data center building boom. There are more than 3,000 data centers in the U.S. and another 1,500 in development, according to a analysis.
While President Donald Trump has , calling it crucial to economic and national security, polling shows that oppose the construction of AI data centers in their communities, citing higher utility bills, pollution, noise and the loss of green space. These centers, which hold computer servers that process words, images and lines of code for large language models such as ChatGPT, also use high amounts of water and electricity.
There is growing opposition to the infrastructure surrounding them, too, particularly the transmission lines needed to power them, which often must cross land belonging to private citizens.
Where private citizens refuse to sell their land, companies are turning to eminent domain, the government’s to seize private property without a landowner’s consent. But does a line built qualify?
I’m a who studies eminent domain issues, and I interpret today’s disputes over seizure of property for the benefit of AI infrastructure as the latest incarnation of a long-standing debate about the limits of taking private property for public use.
Why is expansion needed?
Data centers have massive power needs that can stress electrical grids and . In 2024 they accounted for of the nation’s total electricity use. Demand will grow as more are built. To meet this demand, power companies must build more transmission lines – and acquire land to put them on.
Across the U.S. – in states such as and – power companies have looked to eminent domain to facilitate these goals.
What is eminent domain?
Power companies can approach landowners to purchase easements for transmission lines; if landowners refuse, the government might force a sale.
The government may take private land without consent if the seizure is for “public use” and if the landowner is given “just compensation,” according to the of the U.S. Constitution.
While the federal government has the power to initiate eminent domain actions – also called condemnations – most are done by .
Governments can also to private entities or “common carriers,” such as power and water companies, though every state has its own rules for whether and how these utilities can exercise eminent domain. In Texas, for example, the has held that a project must “serve the public” and “cannot be built only for the builder’s exclusive use” in order to qualify as a common carrier.
What is the ‘public use’ standard?
While property may be taken only for “public use,” that requirement permissively. In its 2005 decision, the court held that economic development qualified, allowing New London, Connecticut, to around a Pfizer facility. That redevelopment, however, , and Pfizer eventually .
In response to that decision – and the public backlash that followed – enacted eminent domain reform laws.
In addition to reform laws, some state supreme courts interpret the eminent domain provisions of their own state constitutions more restrictively. The supreme courts of , and have all prohibited seizing private property to give it to another private party purely for economic development.
This means private landowners may have more success challenging condemnation actions under their state constitutions than in federal court. Still, courts typically by utilities such as power companies.
What does this mean for data center expansion?
Suits challenging the seizure of property for transmission lines on the grounds of public use have mixed results.
For example, the supreme courts of and have each affirmed seizures by power companies, determining that providing at least some energy and improved power grid reliability to in-state customers were valid public uses.
But this argument changes if transmission lines, some of which cross state lines, don’t benefit anyone in the state.
In 1984, for example, a power company’s condemnation action because the transmission line in question would have run from Mississippi into Louisiana without benefiting any Mississippi customers.
These decisions suggest that as data centers increase energy demand and stress current infrastructure, seizing land to improve power grid reliability will likely qualify as public use, especially if the intention is to secure reliability for in-state customers.
Still, arguments around whether additional transmission lines actually serve in-state customers may give landowners grounds for a challenge.
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