STORY: KIDD: "We wanted to raise our kids in the country, a nice quiet setting, and that's all kind of being taken away from us now."

For Ohio resident Breanne Kidd, the construction of Meta's 800-acre Bowling Green data center across from her country home could upend the lifestyle she's spent years building for her family.

KIDD: "What it's taken away is our beautiful sunrise I saw every single morning. // Now, we see buildings and cranes and that's the reason why we moved here, things like that, you know? To live in God's country and not Meta's country."

Kidd, who runs a daycare for toddlers in her home, is also on edge due to construction of a large natural gas power plant meant to serve Meta's data center.

KIDD: "I feel like I'm living next to a threat, and for my family and my daycare families, their safety is my number one priority, and I feel like right now, I can't guarantee that. And that's what makes me most upset."

The plant is one of dozens of large, off-grid power projects being approved rapidly and often under a cover of secrecy across the United States.

That's according to a Reuters review of regulatory filings and interviews.

These plants, built to serve a single data center within the tech industry, are moving ahead FAST... sometimes in just weeks or months.

That means they're getting the green light without the years of permitting, environmental studies and public hearings typically required.

But developers argue many of these rules are exempt for private customers looking to build off-grid plants.

COULTRIP: "History shows that they have not been good neighbors."

Retired police officer Christine Coultrip is worried she'll have to move when the data center is in full swing. Air quality is just one concern.... even though the EPA says it is taking a 'deliberate, governance-driven approach' to such projects.

COULTRIP: "If you look in Memphis, Tennessee, the air pollution is just horrendous, and the EPA's not doing anything. If you look in Georgia, there's some wells, and I've got some pictures where it looks like coffee grounds coming out."

A researcher at Harvard University told Reuters the AI industry's natural-gas generation (quote) "is emerging as one of the largest under-examined air-quality risks in the country."

But supporters say such projects are essential for rapid AI development, serving tech companies without hiking consumer electricity prices.

Here's Gary Thompson, Executive VP of Regional Growth Partnership... an economic development organization serving Northwest Ohio.

THOMPSON: "Our goal for data centers in Northwest Ohio is to build wealth for our communities, so that our schools are funded, our parks are funded. People that live in these communities have the kind of services that they need and desire. And also to build the brand of Northwest Ohio to be associated with big tech companies that are global presence so that we can attract other types of investment to Northwest Ohio as well."

Ohio lawmakers also recently passed provisions shielding big projects like data centers from public records laws.

Officials releasing such information could be criminally charged, according to the measure, which was inserted into an unrelated college athletics bill.

KIDD: "We should all come first, and our opinion should matter. I know there's been several meetings and council meetings and that building over there has been packed, and we've all voiced our opinions that we don't want this here, and it's still happening."