Judge orders pause on Boulder City data center

A Department of Interior administrative judge has ordered a stay on the construction of a data center project slated for Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land near Boulder City, Nevada. The decision came after two appeals were filed against the BLM's original approval of the project, one by Boulder City and another by the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity. The stay effectively pauses construction until the legal challenges are resolved, a process that could span several years.

The core of the judge's ruling hinges on a critical change in the project's scope. Townsite Solar 2, the developer, had initially received approval for a solar field farm in 2023 but subsequently shifted the project to a data center, arguing the uses were similar. However, Administrative Judge David Gunter concluded that a solar field farm and a 300,000-square-foot high-security data center complex are not "substantially the same," noting that a data center consumes grid energy while a solar field generates it.

Olivia Tanager, president of the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter, hailed the pause as a "huge win" for environmentalists, emphasizing the precedent the project could have set for data center development on public lands. Boulder City spokesperson Lisa LaPlante stated the city's appeal was based on numerous concerns, including the alleged failure to follow the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process and insufficient opportunity for public input. Townsite Solar 2, owned by Skylar Capital Management, a Houston-based hedge fund, did not immediately comment on the decision.