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What's At Stake?
The current Administration continues to demonstrate that it intends to exchange ecosystem integrity, biodiversity, clean water, cultural heritage, places of worship, and public recreation for short-sighted industrial development. Construction of data centers on public lands will have irreversible generational impacts.
Water
Data centers utilize enormous amounts of water to cool servers. Public lands are already facing threats from drought and freshwater scarcity. Data centers are already responsible for diesel spills, PFAS leaks, and groundwater contamination. Building data centers on public lands will impact communities and species that depend on these local watersheds.
Wildlife
Millions of species depend on healthy public lands. Data centers are known to emit a combination of light pollution, constant noise and vibrations, chemical pollutants, and air pollution. This commercial activity can cause irreparable harm to already struggling species as well as alter migration patterns, mating, and currently unthreatened wildlife.
Communities
Public lands support a diversity of uses, from recreation to ranching, cultural heritage and historical preservation, and tourism and small businesseseconomic opportunities. Developing extensive permanent infrastructure for buildings, cooling, energy generation, security fencing, substations, and extensive high-voltage transmission corridors threatens the existing economies and livelihoods of many communities.
Timeline.
July 23, 2025
President Trump signs Executive Order 14318, “Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure.” The Executive Order allows for streamlined environmental review and permitting, expanded financial support and land acquisition in order to fast-track data center development.
July 2, 2026
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approves a data center developer’s request to begin geological assessments and groundwater testing on public lands near Silver Springs, Nevada.
July 20, 2026
Townsite Data Center Project is approved by BLM to allow the construction of a data center on 88.5 acres of public land near Boulder City, Nevada.
The project bypassed environmental review under National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) by using an existing environmental impact study already conducted and approved for a specific solar energy projects at the same location.
Allowing the "swap" of environmental impact studies creates a dangerous precedent and effectively undermines the primary purpose of NEPA and the environmental review process.
July 23, 2026
TFederal officials consider a public land swap to allow a developer to build at least 4 data centers along the western border of Prince William Forest Park in Northern Virginia, in close proximity to Quantico Creek. The proposal would allocate 73 acres of wetlands on the developer’s property in exchange for 36 acres of federally owned park land. The proposal was first introduced in May 2025 and is still under discussion.
September 1, 2026
A judge on the Interior Board of Land Appeals concludes that BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by approving the Townsite Data Center project in an amended request that was made originally for a solar and battery storage facility. The decision temporarily revokes authorization for the project pending a full environmental review.
September 13, 2026
The Trump Administration requests BLM to identify public lands for data center development.
September 30, 2026