A resident confronts a developer directly: your company knows this community doesn’t want you here, so why stay? The answer comes without hesitation. “We look for strong spots on the grid… The power infrastructure is very good.” Not tax policy. Not workforce. The grid.
That exchange — caught on hidden camera during the ongoing fight over massive AI data centers proposals near Piedmont, Oklahoma — cuts through every press release and planning commission presentation. The grid brought them here. The grid is keeping them here.
Two projects are circling this small town:
- Houston-based Cloverleaf Infrastructure wants to rezone 630 acres for “Project Open Sky,” a hyperscale campus requiring up to 1.5 gigawatts of electricity at full build-out. City staff compared that load to the demand of a major metropolitan area.
- Beltline Energy is separately seeking to rezone 321 acres nearby.
Cloverleaf has publicly stated its site was selected due to proximity to the Matheson substation…