Paducah $100B+ NextEra/Brookfield 2 GW gas + 2.6 GW storage + 1.8 GW compute Jul 29 / Nvidia $105B backstop OpenAI 4.25 GW PORTS-Pike Ohio Aug 17 / Savannah River Amentum 1 GW + 2 GW gas / BLM first public-land approval appealed / EPA islanded BTM Acid Rain exemption Jul 16 + 60-day NOI / DOE 202(c) SPP + JH Campbell extended / 3 NIETCs canceled Aug 12 / six-RTO show-cause answers due TODAY Aug 17 all asked +3 months / Pledge 200+ utilities 23 governors / S.4214 0 cosponsors HR9442 13 / NoVA 3.8 GW trip Jul 22 largest in PJM history

The Trump administration's answer to the siting war is to route around it: federal land, federal fast-track, and federal emissions accommodation. The federal-site pipeline went from concept to $200B+ in five weeks. July 29: DOE announced a $100B+ privately-funded AI campus at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky — NextEra and Brookfield with Big Rivers Electric, 2 GW of gas generation, 2.6 GW of storage, 1.8 GW of compute. July 22: DOE picked Amentum to negotiate the Savannah River Site lease (1 GW data center + ~2 GW of gas bridging to nuclear). And today, August 17: Nvidia announced it will backstop up to $105 billion of OpenAI's 4.25 GW 'PORTS-Pike Technology Campus' at the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Pike County, Ohio, with SB Energy building. Three decommissioned nuclear-complex sites, all with existing transmission, zero local rezoning votes, and a federal landlord that wants them built. The one legal test in the window: Boulder City and CBD/Sierra Club appealed BLM's first-ever data center approval on public land (Jul 26). The emissions accommodation: EPA's July 16 memo (Office of Air and Radiation, Aaron Szabo) concludes 'islanded' behind-the-meter data center power plants — generation with no grid interconnection — are outside the Acid Rain Program's requirements. Environmental groups answered with a 60-day notice of intent to sue over San Antonio BTM gas plants (Jul 22). The permit architecture for the off-grid era is being negotiated in real time. The grid-emergency track kept running: DOE 202(c) orders stayed active (SPP Order 202-26-37 issued and extended; the J.H. Campbell coal plant got its life extended again, Aug 17–Nov 14 via Order 202-26-39), and on August 12 DOE canceled three proposed National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors, citing the 'Green New Scam agenda' — emergency thermal retention plus transmission-buildout retreat, simultaneously. And the federal large-load proceeding hit its deadline today: the six RTO/ISO responses to FERC's June 18 Section 206 show-cause orders were due August 17 after informational reports July 20 (PJM leaning on its backstop + Expedited Interconnection Track). Every RTO asked for ~3 more months in early August; no FERC ruling on the extensions had been located by press time. The White House Ratepayer Protection Pledge, meanwhile, expanded to 200+ utilities/developers and 23 governors (claiming 80% of US power delivery covered) — and the Sanders/AOC federal moratorium bills stayed dormant (S.4214 zero cosponsors; H.R.9442 at 13, no committee action). One more federal-adjacent event that will echo: 3.8 GW of Northern Virginia data center load tripped offline simultaneously on July 22 — the largest such event in PJM history — accelerating FERC/NERC ride-through standards work.

Primary source · KFVS12 — Paducah DOE site picked for AI computing campus (Jul 29 2026) + Nvidia Newsroom — Nvidia guarantees SB Energy's PORTS-Pike Technology Campus (Aug 17 2026) + EPA — Clarification on islanded power generators and Acid Rain Program (Jul 16 2026) + DOE — NIETC cancellations (Aug 12 2026) + RTO Insider — Every ISO/RTO asks FERC for extra three months on large loads ↗