Jon Luidhardt, a third‑generation farmer from Bowling Green, Ohio, and his brother Ken halted a proposed natural‑gas pipeline that would have cut across 40 acres of their soybean fields, according to a filing with the Ohio Power Siting Board on March 5. The line, owned by Will‑Power, a subsidiary of Williams, was slated to feed gas to Meta’s new data center in Middleton Township, a project that avoided public hearings because it was earmarked for a single corporate customer.
After the Luidhardts presented a map showing the line intersecting their land and offered up to $200,000 per acre, the brothers hired Maurice Thompson of the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law to intervene. Thompson argued that the pipeline served only Meta and did not meet the public‑use requirement for eminent domain.
Williams said it had already secured all required land and that it would not use eminent domain, but once the Luidhardts filed, Will‑Power announced a new routing that skirts the farm. The revised plan will be submitted to the board for approval in early May, while the brothers are waiting for a final decision.