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In a letter sent to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Thursday, a group of Democrats demanded answers on the Trump administration’s reported plans to construct at least a dozen data centers on public lands owned by the federal government.
The letter to Burgum was spearheaded by House Natural Resources Committee ranking member Rep. Jared Huffman (D-California) and signed by 15 other Democrats. In it, the lawmakers note that there has been no public input regarding the data center proposals, which were first reported on by The Washington Sun last week. Instead, per that report, the Trump administration has only had meetings with industry executives.
The administration is reportedly considering proposals for data centers on at least 12 sites across six states. In total, at least 17,600 acres could be leased away to companies managing the proposed data centers. The news comes as President Donald Trump has refused to regulate the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, despite warnings from industry experts.
There are currently zero data centers on any federally owned public lands. The proposed projects are not yet posted on the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) website.
“Data centers create massive environmental impacts: increased water consumption, noise pollution, land use disruption, and air pollution, among others,” the letter from the lawmakers stated, adding that the increase in energy output for these centers would put a “strain on the electrical grid and [drive] up energy prices for the American people.”
The secretive nature of these plans was particularly alarming, the lawmakers said. “Our public lands must not be managed by secret deals and industry-led schemes,” they wrote, adding:
Federal public lands belong to all Americans, and all Americans deserve to have a say in development that would affect our lands, waters, and access to public resources. While an administration spokesperson has pledged that each data center proposal will be evaluated…this administration has rewritten the rules to limit transparency and public input while claiming to comply with the law.
The letter-writers are demanding that Burgum answer a series of questions regarding these plans, including whether the Interior Department considered a public comment period, and if the administration spent any time considering whether the proposed centers “are consistent with relevant resource management plans.”
After news of the proposed centers first broke last week, Huffman accused Trump of “selling out America’s public lands to the richest corporations in human history.” He also condemned Burgum for “taking meetings with the billionaire tech executives who stand to gain everything from yet another Republican public lands giveaway.”
“We need to pump the brakes on the reckless AI buildout,” Huffman said.
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