NEW REPORTING: Jon Husted Championed Eminent Domain Laws Now Threatening Ohio Farms For Data Centers
October 15, 2026
COLUMBUS, OHIO — New reporting reveals that Jon Husted, “the face of data centers,” championed eminent domain laws in the state legislature now threatening Ohio farms for data centers. As Speaker of the Ohio House, Husted handpicked the task force that crafted the legislation now threatening Ohioans’ farms.
Husted appointed a utilities lobbyist to the task force, which carved out an exception for utilities to seize land via eminent domain. Because of Husted’s efforts, utilities are now threatening to take Ohioans’ farmland to power the world’s largest data center — which will require almost twice as much energy as all the homes in Ohio combined.
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Cleveland.com: Ohio’s eminent domain laws could let data center projects take farmland
- Lauren Dill Morton’s family has farmed the same Ross County fields since a land grant deed signed by President Thomas Jefferson put it in their name.
- So when an AEP Ohio representative asked about installing data center transmission lines through her cornfields, Morton saw 150-foot steel towers slicing through her family’s history.
- “It made me so angry that I sold my Nvidia stock,” Morton said. “I’m going to put in a charity or nonprofit that opposes data centers.” She won’t sell at any price, but she may have no choice.
- Ohio law lets utilities seize land for transmission lines through eminent domain, presuming the projects serve the public because big, high-voltage lines rarely serve a single customer.
- Hyperscale data centers are the exception.
- The PORTS Technology Campus in Piketon is an AI data center that developers have billed as the world’s largest. And Ohio Power is developing three transmission lines to serve SoftBank’s planned facility, including one through Ross County.
- The campus could need 10 gigawatts, more power than every Ohio household combined.
- Ordinary distribution lines can’t carry that load, so the campus needs towering transmission lines. Ohio Power said SoftBank committed to cover the costs. But that only reinforced Morton’s belief that this is a private development project.
- “I don’t feel like it’s a public necessity,” Morton said. “It’s a necessity for that data center, maybe.”
TiffinOhio: Jon Husted backed utilities’ land-seizure powers now threatening Ohio farms for data centers
- As Ohio House speaker, Jon Husted helped select an eminent domain task force and backed a 2007 law that exempted utilities from restrictions on certain land takings. AEP later invoked the law in court.
- Now the utility is planning major transmission lines to serve a data center as Ohio landowners confront the threat of eminent domain.
- Husted was speaker of the Ohio House when lawmakers developed the 2007 eminent domain overhaul.
- He appointed House members to a task force studying the issue and joined the Senate president in selecting public members, including a man who would later become a FirstEnergy lobbyist. On June 27, 2007, Husted voted for Senate Bill 7, which passed the House 71-27 and took effect that October.
- The legislation restricted the use of eminent domain to transfer property for economic development, but its definition of public use specifically exempted transfers to public utilities, municipal power agencies and common carriers.
- It also presumed that utility facilities and projects undertaken by public utilities qualify as public uses.
- That distinction matters today: A transmission line built to deliver power to a privately operated data center can still be a utility project for eminent domain purposes.
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