The Billion-Dollar Blind Spot: Why Land Service Companies Are Infrastructure’s Missing Piece

At the recent Electric and Utilities Roundtable during the International Right of Way Association (IRWA) Annual International Education Conference, discussions centered on pivotal shifts in the energy sector. Nuclear power restarts. Grid modernization. Utility infrastructure expansion. The exponential growth of data centers. The urgency for grid reliability, renewable integration, and infrastructure to support rapid digital and industrial growth was evident.

Yet, a critical component was conspicuously absent from the dialogue: land service companies. and the landowners whose properties form the literal foundation of every utility, nuclear, and data center project.

While regulatory compliance, permitting timelines, policy shifts, and public perception were thoroughly examined, there was no mention of land acquisition strategies, building landowner trust, or resolving title issues that can stall projects before they commence.

When I asked about integrating landowner dynamics and land access into planning, especially with accelerating nuclear development, a panelist chuckled and said,

“Can you imagine walking up to a farm owner and asking if you can put a nuclear power plant in their backyard?”

That reaction was not cruel. It was revealing. It surfaced the blind spot that continues to cost this industry billions what happens when field level execution is left out of strategic planning. We continue to prioritize short term politics, abstract permitting timelines, and theoretical PR messaging over operational reality. And it derails more projects than bad headlines ever will.

The very next day, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the restart of the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan, marking the first U.S. nuclear facility to resume operations after a permanent shutdown. The project received a final environmental assessment indicating no significant impacts and secured a $1.52 billion DOE loan guarantee.

That is not a concept. That is capital. That is a federal green light.

At the same time, data centers are projected to consume up to twelve percent of total U.S. electricity supply by 2028, driven by the proliferation of energy intensive AI applications. This surge requires carbon free, reliable, dispatchable generation.

Most importantly, it requires land.

Infrastructure does not happen in theory. It happens on land. And land has owners.

This expansion across energy, nuclear, and digital infrastructure will stall without an intentional land strategy. Landowners are not just stakeholders. They are gatekeepers. Their cooperation, trust, and long term partnership determine whether a project moves forward or becomes entangled in litigation and delays.

Land acquisition is not a paperwork task. It is the foundation of execution. Without the legal right to access and develop land, no amount of capital, permitting, or modeling can move a single shovel of dirt. Delays in land acquisition significantly contribute to project slowdowns and increased infrastructure costs. These delays lead to electricity scarcity, rising energy bills, and system congestion. These outcomes cost energy customers tens of billions of dollars every year.

The Core Challenge: Unacknowledged Costs and Disconnects

My experience reveals a critical and often unspoken truth in infrastructure development. The true cost goes beyond financial projections and includes major social, environmental, and political burdens. Ignoring these realities leads to long term damage and systemic failure.

Here is what I have seen up close:

• Political short termism
• Community engagement that is reactive or performative
• Financial models that quietly shift risk to taxpayers
• Environmental neglect caused by accelerated timelines
• Landowner resistance created by broken trust and inadequate compensation

This is where projects unravel.

The Path Forward: Intentional Land Strategy and Holistic Engagement

There is a right way to ask the hard questions. Even the nuclear one. It requires timing, experience, and professional skill.

Land service companies were built for this exact work.

Their work includes stakeholder engagement, title research, permitting coordination, and land use planning. They identify properties already under lease and design around existing infrastructure. Brownfield sites. Retired mines. Legacy utility corridors. Their role is to prevent delays, remove blind spots, and keep projects grounded in reality. They do not manage stakeholders. They align them.

This is why Mockingbird exists.

Energy infrastructure will not move forward through policy alone. It requires land. It requires relationships. It requires execution partners who understand both. The people who know how to earn access, hold trust, and turn vision into reality before a public hearing ever takes place.

What I heard in that roundtable reinforced what I already knew. Infrastructure is not built on hope or headlines. It is built on real land with real people. It starts with dirt. And it ends with trust. You can have all the capital and policy in the world. If the land says no, nothing gets built.

That part needs to be said out loud.

Leigh Haas

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