Data Centers

Saturday Wrapup - The Bureau of Land Management is reviewing proposals to build 12 new data centers on federal public land in a half-dozen western states, according to a Friday report from the Washington Sun. The sites are located in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming.

The BLM claims its review process will “protect natural resources while enabling responsible infrastructure development” that delivers benefits like “expanded broadband capacity, improved electrical reliability, and support for growing technology-driven economies.”

Interior Department leadership had given state BLM directors just three days to compile lists of land suitable for the projects. Local leaders said they had no idea the proposals even existed before the story broke.

Mary Jo Rugwell, president of the Public Lands Foundation and a former BLM state director, said that the administration was “bending knee to the tech oligarchs and letting them do whatever they need to do."