{"slug": "kentucky-family-turns-down-26-million-to-build-data-center-on-their-farm-as-7-in", "title": "Kentucky Family Turns Down $26 Million To Build Data Center On Their Farm As 7 In 10 Americans Don’t Want A Data Center Near Them", "summary": "A Kentucky family rejected roughly $26 million from an unnamed Fortune 100 company for half of their 1,200-acre farm in Mason County to build an AI data center, joining a lawsuit to block the project. A Gallup poll of 1,000 U.S. adults conducted March 2-18, 2026 found 71% oppose local AI data center construction, with 48% strongly opposed. Data Center Watch counted at least 75 projects worth $130 billion blocked or delayed in Q1 2026, and more than 300 localities have enacted bans or moratoriums.", "body_md": "In Mason County, Kentucky, near Maysville, Ida Huddleston and her daughter Delsia Bare turned down roughly $26 million for about half of their 1,200-acre family farm. The buyer, unnamed in every account and described by People.com as a Fortune 100 company, wanted the land for an [AI data center](https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/05/12/the-ai-data-center-backlash-is-growing-kevin-olearys-1-billion-stratos-project-reveals-why/). The price worked out to roughly ten times the local going rate of about $6,000 an acre. The family said no, and has since joined a lawsuit seeking to block the project entirely.\n\nThe farm has been worked across generations and reportedly sustained the family through the Depression. That generational stewardship is central to their reasoning. Bare framed the refusal religiously, telling Fox Business she must “occupy” the land she was given until Christ’s return, and would be held accountable for failing to. Huddleston told Fox News: “They call us old stupid farmers, you know, but we’re not. We know whenever our food is disappearing, our lands are disappearing.” She called claims of local economic benefit “a scam.” Fox Business put the proposed facility at 2.2 gigawatts.\n\n## Opposition Spans Parties, Regions, and Demographics\n\nA Gallup poll of 1,000 U.S. adults conducted March 2-18, 2026 found 71% of Americans oppose construction of an AI data center in their local area, with 48% strongly opposed. Independents opposed at 74%, Republicans at 63%; Midwest 76%, South 75%, East 68%, West 63%. Gallup described opposition as consistent across age, race, education and income. A separate Reuters poll found only about a third of Americans approve of the current pace of construction, and just 14% would be comfortable with one built nearby.\n\nVincent Peters, a former SpaceX manager, argued on Fox Business that the pushback is class grievance, driven by a sense that Big Tech treats rural communities as marks to be exploited.\n\n## Projects Blocked, Delayed, and Litigated\n\nData Center Watch counted at least 75 projects worth roughly $130 billion blocked or delayed in the first quarter of 2026 alone, the largest single-quarter concentration on record and roughly matching all of 2025 in three months. More than 300 state data center bills were introduced in the first six weeks of the year, and opposition groups now operate in 49 states.\n\nIntrol’s tally from mid-2024 put $64 billion in projects blocked or delayed, with cancellations rising from 2 in 2023, to 6 in 2024, to 25 in 2025. On July 18, 2026, activists staged 142 protests across 42 states in a single day.\n\nWarrenton, Virginia voters ousted their entire town council in November 2024 over a proposed **Amazon** ([NASDAQ:AMZN](https://247wallst.com/companies/AMZN/) | [AMZN Price Prediction](https://247wallst.com/companies/amzn/price-prediction)) data center; the successor council banned data centers via zoning. A Virginia court voided the rezoning for the 2,100-acre “Digital Gateway” project in Prince William County in January 2026. New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the nation’s first statewide hyperscale moratorium by executive order on July 14, 2026. More than 300 localities have enacted bans or moratoriums.\n\n## Water, Power, and Who Pays\n\nPer Introl, water concerns appear in more than 40% of opposition cases and electricity costs in more than 35%. A mid-size facility can use as much water as a small town; large ones consume up to 5 million gallons daily. Residents near **Meta** ([NASDAQ:META](https://247wallst.com/companies/META/))’s Newton County, Georgia campus have reported damaged wells. A typical large facility generates about 1,700 construction jobs but only 150 permanent ones.\n\nThe EIA’s April 2026 Annual Energy Outlook notes that after 15 years of nearly flat U.S. electricity consumption, demand rose 2.1% annually over the last five years, with data center servers a major driver. On April 29, 2026, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing titled “AI and the Grid: Meeting Growing Power Demand While Protecting Ratepayers.” All of that load has to be generated, moved, and cooled by somebody, which is why we pulled seven of the suppliers behind the buildout into a [free report on the picks-and-shovels side of AI](https://247wallst.com/pages/ai-power-seven-offer-d905ec99.html).\n\n## Industry Answer and What Comes Next\n\nOperators frame data centers as critical infrastructure needed to keep AI development and its national-security advantages on U.S. soil rather than ceding ground to China. Some are testing Community Benefit Agreements: Lancaster, Pennsylvania’s includes water-use caps, noise controls, and $20 million in community contributions. Peters compared today’s friction to early resistance to airports, highways, and railroads, industries that eventually learned to “establish some kind of happy balance with the community.” On the Huddleston farm, that balance has not been struck.\n\n*Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.*", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kentucky-family-turns-down-26-million-to-build-data-center-on-their-farm-as-7-in", "canonical_source": "https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/08/20/kentucky-family-turns-down-26-million-to-build-data-center-on-their-farm-as-7-in-10-americans-dont-want-a-data-center-near-them/", "published_at": "2026-08-20 10:18:39+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-20 10:43:34.351967+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-policy", "ai-infrastructure"], "entities": ["Ida Huddleston", "Delsia Bare", "Gallup", "Data Center Watch", "Amazon", "Meta", "Kathy Hochul", "Introl"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kentucky-family-turns-down-26-million-to-build-data-center-on-their-farm-as-7-in", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kentucky-family-turns-down-26-million-to-build-data-center-on-their-farm-as-7-in.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kentucky-family-turns-down-26-million-to-build-data-center-on-their-farm-as-7-in.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/kentucky-family-turns-down-26-million-to-build-data-center-on-their-farm-as-7-in.jsonld"}}