Not just data centers are targeted under Rep. Molly Jenkins‘ “Rural Landowners Protection Act,” but so are wind farms, battery storage projects, carbon capture and transmission lines. The bill would give the power of rejection to adjacent landowners.
The Republican from Coyle filed HB3095 as a means of giving landowners near proposed data center sites the power of voting on such projects.
The measure cited six kinds of projects that would be targeted under the bill including those relating to wind electric power generation, relating to electric bulk power transmission when used primarily for wind energy transmission, relating to recyclable material merchants and materials recovery facilities when used for wind-turbine component recycling or decommissioning, relating to data processing, hosting, and computing infrastructure providers when used for operation of a large-scale data center, relating to grid-scale battery storage installations and activities relating to carbon capture, carbon recapture, carbon-sequestration, or related scientific or industrial operations.
Her bill would give the power to vote to owners of land within 5 miles in all directions of the “proposed covered facility or infrastructure.” She identified a landowner as the person or persons identified in county land records.
The bill also puts restrictions on the government agencies involved and force government officials to provide a written notice to the landowners within 30 days of receiving notice of application for one of the projects. County Commissioners would also be required to set an election date within the 30 days.
“No state agency, county, municipality, or political
subdivision shall issue any permit, zoning action, certificate, or
authorization for construction or operation of a covered facility
unless the project first receives landowner approval as provided in this section.”
HB3095 also stated that the only way a project could be approved is with two-thirds of the votes.