Locals Fear Wrath

Farmers fight an 'extension cord' for data centers

By Bracey Harris, NBC News

The proposed route for a widely protested high-voltage power line starts near Brandon and Marie Hill's farm in Parkton, Md. (André Chung for NBC News)

MT. AIRY, Md. — Standing in a 40-acre field of Christmas trees, Lisa Gaver traced the path of the high-voltage power line that could one day cut through the heart of her family’s farm.

The 500-kilovolt line would skim a parking lot, cross through the woods and over a metal deer fence, before running diagonally across a field of Douglas firs and blue spruces and continuing as far as the eye could see.

Gaver, a seventh-generation farmer, wants no part of what she and other landowners in rural Maryland call an “extension cord” for data centers in Northern Virginia 50 miles away. She figures that the tens of thousands of patrons who descend on the 150-acre farm annually to pick pumpkins, find their perfect Christmas tree and munch on apple cider doughnuts don’t either.

“It’s going to financially devastate us,” she said. “There’s $4 million worth FINISH READING HERE

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