This story is made possible through a partnership between Grist and The Flatwater Free Press, Nebraska’s first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories.
Rick Wheatley owns a property with about 80 acres in Nebraska’s Otoe County — an area east of Lincoln known for its farmland, apple orchards, and Arbor Day celebrations. Wheatley’s land, a portion of which is used for growing corn and soybeans, has been in his family for generations. Sometime last fall, a representative from a private energy developer, Tenaska, approached Wheatley about possibly purchasing the land.
Wheatley said the representative mentioned the company was trying to assemble and secure the right to purchase 2,000 acres near a gas pipeline for a power plant that could serve an AI data center.
“At first, he kind of slipped and said for AI, they need their own generating stations for AI,” Wheatley said. “But then they kind of backpedaled it.” According to Wheatley, the Tenaska representative then told him that the c... Read more
