--- title: "Kinder Morgan sued 141 landowners for a $5.2 billion gas corridor; foes call the AI demand case 4x overstated" description: "Opponents of the $5.2 billion Mississippi Crossing corridor told a federal appeals court this month that the data-center demand case behind it is more than four times overstated. Southern Company half-owns the pipe, buys its gas and parents the forecast; it reports November 5." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Energy" published: 2026-10-16T19:19:31.984Z modified: 2026-10-16T19:19:31.984Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/kinder-morgan-sued-141-landowners-for-a-5-2-billion-gas-corridor-foes-call-the-ai-demand-case-4x-overstated language: en keywords: "Kinder Morgan, Southern Company, Natural Gas, Data Centers, Eminent Domain, Legal" --- # Kinder Morgan sued 141 landowners for a $5.2 billion gas corridor; foes call the AI demand case 4x overstated > Opponents of the $5.2 billion Mississippi Crossing corridor told a federal appeals court this month that the data-center demand case behind it is more than four times overstated. Southern Company half-owns the pipe, buys its gas and parents the forecast; it reports November 5. [Kinder Morgan](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/kinder-morgan)'s pipeline arm has [sued 141 Mississippi landowners since July](https://mississippitoday.org/2026/10/14/groups-challenge-unnecessary-data-center-fueled-gas-pipeline/) to make way for a $5.2 billion gas corridor across the state [1]. The corridor's demand case is a data-center forecast, and [an analysis by London Economics International](https://www.gpb.org/news/2026/10/06/500-miles-of-pipeline-serve-data-center-demand-faces-legal-battle) for the project's opponents puts that forecast at more than four times what the utilities' own public records show [2]. [Southern Company](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/southern-company) sits on every side of the transaction. Southern Natural Gas, its 50/50 venture with Kinder Morgan, is the project partner; its utilities are slated to buy the gas through the added capacity; and its subsidiaries' load forecasts underwrite the need case [1] [3]. Southern reports third-quarter results on November 5, the first demand number since federal certification [4]. ## The forecast runs from an OpenAI campus to a Mississippi farm Begin with demand that is already under contract. Georgia regulators cleared Georgia Power, Southern's subsidiary, to serve an [OpenAI](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/openai) data center near Savannah, and OpenAI pays the full cost of the infrastructure that serves it [5]. The 25-year agreement covers roughly 3.2 gigawatts [5]. The same regulator has let Georgia Power roughly double its grid for data centers, and executives said in July that the new capacity they had forecast was already spoken for [6]. From there the forecast becomes pipe. Kinder Morgan's finance chief counts more than 200 gigawatts of large-load connection requests across Southern, Dominion, Duke, Florida Power & Light and the Tennessee Valley Authority [3]. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accepted that case and [on July 31 approved the Mississippi Crossing and South System Expansion 4 pair](https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-market-news/2876304-ferc-approves-more-gas-pipelines-in-southeast-us) [7]. Southern buys as well as forecasts: it has signed a 20-year deal for two-thirds of the capacity on Boardwalk's new Kosciusko Junction gas line [7]. ## Eighty percent signed, then 141 suits Eminent domain is the last hop. Its Tennessee Gas subsidiary had reached agreements with 80% of the Mississippi parcels as of October 7 [1]. Of its 141 condemnation suits, 36 were settled by October 13 [1]. A lumber company holding land in two counties has countersued over "grossly inadequate" payment, and Bobbie Miller of Isola, whose family land sits on the route, has refused every offer [1]. *Chart: **105 of the 141 condemnation suits were still open on October 13** Column chart showing 141 condemnation suits filed by Tennessee Gas, 36 settled by October 13 and 105 still open.* *Condemnation suits filed by Kinder Morgan's Tennessee Gas subsidiary against Mississippi landowners since July; settled count as of October 13. Source: Mississippi Today. [1]* ## The courtroom fight is over how much of that demand is real The Natural Gas Act makes FERC approval hinge on public need, and on October 1 the Southern Environmental Law Center, ten community groups and two landowners [asked the federal appeals court in Washington to set the certificates aside](https://theinference.org/article/environmental-groups-ask-to-unwind-kinder-morgan-s-5-2-billion-pipelines-as-it-pitches-a-1-3-billion-one) [3] [8]. Their senior attorney Megan Gibson points to "evidence of plausible self-dealing" in the affiliate contracts used to demonstrate need [2]. Kinder Morgan answers that it scopes projects to customer need, does not overbuild, and does not comment on what it calls meritless litigation [1] [2]. The market is already marking the risk: analysts at [Truist](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/truist-financial) [cut their Southern target to $93 from $97](https://www.ad-hoc-news.de/boerse/news/corporate-news/truist-cuts-target-for-southern-company-stock-to-usd-93-from-usd-97/70338022) this week, citing regulatory uncertainty in Georgia [4]. Who pays if the demand never arrives is already fixed in the Georgia deal. Georgia Power agreed to backstop certain new-generation costs through 2031 if data-center contracts fail to materialize, a protection framed as shifting execution risk onto the utility and away from ratepayers [5]. The project's opponents read the same risk the other way: a pipe built for demand that never arrives lands on ratepayers in Southern's own states [1]. ## November 5 is the first number that can settle it Kinder Morgan's capital spending says which way the builder is betting. *Chart: **Kinder Morgan's capex hit a 12-quarter high the quarter before FERC approved the corridor** Line chart of Kinder Morgan's quarterly capital expenditure from Q3 2023 to Q2 2026, climbing from about $0.6 billion to a 12-quarter high of $0.98 billion.* *Quarterly capital expenditure from Kinder Morgan's SEC filings, not annualized; Q2 2026 ended June 30, before FERC's July 31 approval of the corridor. [9]* Only a fraction of the requested load is under contract, and the size of that fraction is the dispute. When Southern reports, compare contracted gigawatts with the queue behind them. If contracts keep catching up with requests, the corridor's case holds and the four-times critique weakens; if the queue grows while contracts stall, the critique is the better description of what was built. Either way, the downside lands on Miller's family and on ratepayers along the route [1]. The AI buildout is real where the customer pays its own way. This corridor is a bet that every request becomes a contract, and the contracted number is where that bet gets settled. ## Takeaway A $5.2 billion gas corridor approved on a data-center load forecast now faces a court challenge calling that forecast four times overstated, while Kinder Morgan sues 141 landowners; Southern's November 5 contracted-versus-queued gigawatts are the first number that can settle it. ## Sources 1. [Mississippi Today, Alex Rozier: Groups challenge 'unnecessary' data-center-fueled gas pipeline, 14 October 2026](https://mississippitoday.org/2026/10/14/groups-challenge-unnecessary-data-center-fueled-gas-pipeline/) 2. [Georgia Public Broadcasting, Jillian Magtoto: 500 miles of pipeline to serve data center demand faces legal battle, 6 October 2026](https://www.gpb.org/news/2026/10/06/500-miles-of-pipeline-serve-data-center-demand-faces-legal-battle) 3. [The Inference, Vincent Jiang: Environmental groups ask to unwind Kinder Morgan's $5.2 billion pipelines as it pitches a $1.3 billion one, 14 October 2026](https://theinference.org/article/environmental-groups-ask-to-unwind-kinder-morgan-s-5-2-billion-pipelines-as-it-pitches-a-1-3-billion-one) 4. [ad-hoc-news.de: Truist cuts target for Southern Company stock to USD 93 from USD 97, 16 October 2026](https://www.ad-hoc-news.de/boerse/news/corporate-news/truist-cuts-target-for-southern-company-stock-to-usd-93-from-usd-97/70338022) 5. [Insider Monkey, Jeff Lewis: Southern Co (SO) Cleared PSC Review for 3.2GW of OpenAI Demand, 4 September 2026](https://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/southern-co-so-cleared-psc-review-for-3-2gw-of-openai-demand-can-data-centers-lower-customer-bills-without-raising-grid-risk-1824885/) 6. [The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Kristi E. Swartz: Southern Company's data center pipeline keeps filling up, 31 July 2026](https://www.ajc.com/business/2026/07/southern-companys-data-center-pipeline-keeps-filling-up/) 7. [Argus Media, Chris Knight: FERC approves more gas pipelines in southeast US, 10 September 2026](https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-market-news/2876304-ferc-approves-more-gas-pipelines-in-southeast-us) 8. [Marcellus Drilling News: Called It: Big Green Takes Kinder's MSX & SSE4 Pipelines to Court, 5 October 2026](https://marcellusdrilling.com/2026/10/called-it-big-green-takes-kinders-msx-sse4-pipelines-to-court/) 9. [Kinder Morgan, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 16 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001506307) --- Kinder Morgan sued 141 landowners for a $5.2 billion gas corridor; foes call the AI demand case 4x overstated — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/kinder-morgan-sued-141-landowners-for-a-5-2-billion-gas-corridor-foes-call-the-ai-demand-case-4x-overstated