Congressman Greg Stanton and Arizona's democratic delegation are demanding answers following reports that the Trump administration is considering at least four data center proposals on federal public lands in the state.
The Washington Sun reported last week on at least 12 proposals for data centers on federal public lands in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming.
After the article was published, one applicant, Valar Atomics — which was planning a data center powered by small nuclear reactors on a 10,200-acre site near Green River, Utah — withdrew.
Stanton says he and other state leaders have heard nothing from the Bureau of Land Management, the agency in charge of reviewing and approving the projects.
"There's been, unfortunately, a lack of transparency by the Trump administration. We found out about the proposed four data centers on BLM land in Arizona from a media source in Washington, D.C.," Stanton said.
Now, Stanton, Sen. Mark Kelly, Sen. Ruben Gallego, Rep. Yassamin Ansari and Rep. Adelita Grijavla are demanding transparency about the details of each project and the agency's plans for completing public and environmental reviews in a co-signed letter to BLM.
"The amount of acreage proposed is 3,000 acres, so a very large area that they're proposing for these data centers. Are they proposing them to be side by side or at different locations throughout Arizona? What technology are they going to use to minimize water usage?" Stanton asked.
"What public process are they going to follow before they move forward? All of these are open questions," Stanton added.
The delegation has given the agency until Oct. 2 to respond or Stanton and his staff may consider legal action.
"They're not gonna have this thing be built without going through a transparent process and following the law. We're not going to support something that doesn't follow the law in this proposal, and so that's exactly what we're demanding," Stanton said.
The news comes after the Interior Department finalized a rule in February that eliminated most procedures under the National Environmental Protection Act.
NEPA, a federal law passed in 1970, holds BLM and other federal agencies responsible for making the public aware of proposed actions, and for completing environmental, social and economic impact analyses. It was created in response to observed ecological damage from industrialization, highways and other large scale government infrastructure projects.
NEPA also created the Council on Environmental Quality, which provides the president an executive council to study environmental impacts and ensure federal agency compliance with the law. According to a Sept. 17 White House press release, the CEQ rescinded most NEPA regulations to let individual agencies create their own environmental review processes.
As reported by the Washington Sun, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has let developers skip the public notice period on Clean Water Act permits. The Environmental Protection Agency is also considering eliminating public participation on minor source air permits.
Without certainty that BLM will follow historic review procedures, Stanton says he's at least hopeful courts may uphold NEPA requirements. He says the administration recently attempted to bypass NEPA with its proposed DHS detention center in Surprise, but litigation led to them agreeing to complete a review.
"We don't know if we're going to get to that point with the proposed data centers on BLM land in Arizona, but it is you know, it is certainly my belief that that there is no, the president doesn't have the ability to unilaterally waive the requirements of NEPA," Stanton said.
According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, a judge blocked a proposal to build a data center on federal land in Boulder City, Nevada, after learning BLM tried to approve the project without new environmental review, instead relying on an older solar project analysis at that site.
Aside from the letter, Stanton says he's working to give Democrats a majority in Congress, which he views as necessary for ensuring responsible data center development.
"I'm a co-sponsor of bills that as soon as we get in the majority, we're going to be passing very swiftly that require that energy costs don't go up as a result of a data center being built in a community. We're going to make sure there's full transparency on the environmental impacts," Stanton said.
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