A federal appellate panel issued a stay that prevents construction from proceeding on the Townsite data center project located near Boulder City, Nevada. The Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter, and local residents had filed an appeal challenging the facility, which would have been the first hyperscale data center approved for construction on federally managed public land in the United States.
The Interior Board of Land Appeals determined that the appeal presented a likely case for success on its merits, finding that the Trump administration had approved the project without conducting an environmental review specific to the data center itself. Instead, federal officials had relied upon an approval process from several years earlier that had been developed for a solar energy project proposed at the same location.
Environmental advocates and community representatives contended that the approval process failed to adequately assess the potential impacts of the data center development. Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity, characterized the halt as a significant achievement for communities opposing large-scale development on public lands. Olivia Tanager, director of the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter, stated that the ruling affirmed the importance of public participation in decisions affecting public lands and noted that residents of Boulder City had expressed opposition to the project.
The decision prevents the Townsite facility from moving forward while the appeals panel continues to evaluate the legal challenges. Officials indicated that the Bureau of Land Management is reviewing other data center proposals on public land elsewhere in Nevada, with today’s ruling potentially affecting how those projects proceed. Local resident Brynn deLorimier stated that the outcome could set precedent for how public lands in Nevada and across the country are managed going forward.
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