ETX Upstream / Green River East Energy Hub, former Elmer Smith Station site (unconfirmed data center use)

Owensboro, Daviess County, KY

ETX Upstream / Green River East Energy Hub, former Elmer Smith Station site (unconfirmed data center use), a data center project in Owensboro, KY associated with ETX Upstream (via Green River East GenCo LLC / Green River East LoadCo LLC), has stalled. Boston-based ETX Upstream, a land/power developer for large energy loads including data centers, through affiliates Green River East GenCo LLC and Green River East LoadCo LLC, has since Aug 2025 assembled lease/purchase options and utility easements across hundreds of acres in eastern Daviess County near U.S. 60, KY 144, and Owensboro Health Regional Hospital, including a March 2026 option on 100+ acres of OMU riverfront land at the former Elmer Smith Generating Station. OMU and the City of Owensboro state the OMU option is specifically for studying a possible new power plant, not a data center, and no recorded document names a data center project or end customer. However, ETX Upstream and Newmark Capital Markets marketing materials from May 2026 publicly listed Daviess County, KY as one of the sites in a greater-than-1GW, greater-than-1000-acre Gallatin Data Center Portfolio / co-located generation-plus-load Energy Hub strategy. This triggered the Owensboro-Daviess County opposition group and a county-wide 1-year data center moratorium in May 2026, despite no confirmed data center project existing. Treat as an unconfirmed, speculative lead, not a verified sited project; flagged here because it is the most concrete real signal behind the community organizing, not because a data center has been confirmed.