Few fights have grown as heated as the pushback in Maryland, where PSEG has floated using eminent domain to take farmland from residents who won’t agree to host the new transmission line. After farmers organized to keep PSEG’s land surveyors off their property — and some farmers were accused of threatening the surveyors with guns and dogs — the company asked a federal judge to send in U.S. marshals.
The judge did not agree, but the divisive debate in Maryland shows just how critical data centers’ demands have become and the impact they will have on the country’s open spaces. Thousands of acres of agricultural land from North Carolina to Indiana are now earmarked for the facilities. Companies including Meta and Amazon are building sprawling structures on fields that once grew soybeans and corn. While some farmers are opting to sell, others are fighting what they see as an intrusion ultimately benefiting Big Tech.
“I don’t want to be bought out,” said Renée Wilson, a fourth-generation farmer in Parkton, Maryland, who runs The Farmyard, a popular learning farm. The proposed power line would cross her livestock fields, and PSEG sued her to gain access for surveyors; a ruling is pending. “I’m going to fight this tooth and nail as long as I can,” she said.
PSEG’s latest move that rankled opponents came in late October, when the company asked a judge to temporarily block deer hunting on properties it plans to survey, to keep its workers safe.
PJM has argued that Maryland needs the project not just to support companies across state lines in Virginia — where a “Data Center Alley” hosts roughly 200 of the facilities for major tech firms — but also to feed data centers within Maryland’s borders and to shore up the state’s grid. Maryland imports 40% of the electricity it uses, and the existing lines are expected to be so overburdened that the state could see brownouts as soon as 2027, PSEG said.
Asked about farmers’ concerns, PSEG said it would “work proactively to limit any impacts.” The company added, “Our experience has been that agriculture and agritourism can coexist with transmission lines.”
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