Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is pushing data centers on public lands by claiming that the benefits are self-evident, the timeline is too urgent for a normal permitting process, and that any community that objects is on the wrong side of history, China, or both.
At a Breitbart policy event in March 2025, he said, “We take electricity and an AI data center. We manufacture intelligence.” Two months later, at an America First Policy Institute event, he raised the stakes, warning that, “Whoever controls the manufacture of intelligence is going to control the world.” By that May, he had come up with a slogan: “We’re going to ‘mine, baby, mine’ so we can ‘build, baby, build’ because we got to build AI data centers.”
In June 2026, the Bureau of Land Management approved the first AI data center sited directly on public land. Located just outside Boulder City, the land had originally been approved for a solar farm. Rather than conduct a new environmental review for a project with a wildly different energy footprint, BLM simply reused the old permitting paperwork, skipping a public comment period entirely.
Burgum has also made renewable energy nearly impossible to build on public land, pushing developers to try to build data centers instead. In April, Clearway Energy Group asked the Interior department to swap out an application to build a solar project in the Nevada desert to a data center and natural gas facility, according to Heatmap News. Clearway withdrew its data center application in July, likely due to public outcry over the Boulder City project, which essentially asked for the same thing from Interior and received approval in June. Read more in the latest Westwise blog post on Substack.
We’re coming to Arizona!
Join us for a live podcast taping about the threats facing Arizona’s public lands on August 28 in Tucson. As part of the Center for Western Priorities’ Keep Parks Public campaign, we’ll be discussing the impacts of border wall construction on wildlife corridors and Indigenous sites, along with staffing and funding cuts at land management agencies and rollbacks of environmental protections, from Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge to Quitobaquito Springs. The event is free, but please RSVP if you plan to attend.
Quick hits
You have until Friday to weigh in on a major federal wilderness review
Opinion: Coloradans shouldn’t have to pay to clean up abandoned oil wells
Alaska groups appeal ruling approving public lands transfer
Opinion: Five writers on which Trump appointee has surprised them most
Nevada voters prioritize public lands over mining, energy
Opinion: Outdoor recreation on public lands is a Nevada economic powerhouse
Editorial: Texas leaders talk tough. Why won’t they fight for Big Bend?
Opinion: National parks are a gold mine. Congress must save them from crumbling
Quote of the day
Politics is often the art of reinvention. Burgum is proof that not all makeovers are for the better.”
—Robert Gebelhoff, Washington Post
Picture This
Meet the porcupine, a fascinating resident of our public lands! With their thousands of quills and impressive climbing skills, these unique creatures spend much of their time in trees, munching on leaves, bark, and buds.
As wildfires continue to impact our landscapes, wildlife like porcupines may be displaced, seeking food and shelter in unfamiliar territories. When you’re out enjoying nature, please remember to give them the space they need to recover and thrive. Together, we can help protect these incredible animals and their habitats! 💚✨
@BLMOregonWashington photo
Feature image: A Google data center in The Dalles, Oregon, Source: Tony Webster/Wikimedia Commons
