Appeal Challenges Public Lands Data Center in Nevada

Two environmental groups, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club's Toiyabe Chapter, have filed an appeal against federal approval of a data center planned for Boulder City, Nevada. The 167-megawatt facility, proposed by Skylar Capital Management, was approved in June by the Bureau of Land Management, marking the first data center ever authorized on U.S. public lands. The appeal argues the agency skipped normal environmental review and public comment by reusing an old approval that had been granted for a solar project on the same site.

The proposed site sits in Eldorado Valley, desert tortoise habitat southeast of Las Vegas, and would draw water from the Colorado River Basin, a water source already under strain. Boulder City itself is also filing an appeal, joined by local residents who worry about rising utility rates, falling property values, damage to tourism, and pressure on the water supply.

This story is not about a program or rebate you can use at home. It is a land-use and permitting fight over whether a large industrial facility can be built on public land near a small desert town without the usual environmental review. If the appeal fails, groups involved say the approval process used here could become a model for other data centers proposed on public lands across the West, which could matter to homeowners near other federal land parcels watching how their local utility rates, water access, or land use might be affected by similar projects in the future.