Legal shortcut greenlit a data center on public land — and shut the public out
A legal shortcut, enabled by a Trump administration executive order, allowed a data center developer on federally owned land in Boulder City, Nevada, to bypass public scrutiny and environmental review. This approval, granted to Townsite Solar 2 by the Bureau of Land Management, has sparked outrage among residents and city officials who are appealing the decision to the Interior Department.
An unprecedented legal maneuver, utilizing a Trump administration executive order, permitted Townsite Solar 2, a subsidiary of a Texas-based hedge fund, to gain approval for a data center on federal land in Boulder City, Nevada. This shortcut, which circumvented public scrutiny and additional environmental review by applying an existing solar farm permit's environmental assessment to the data center, has drawn strong criticism from former Bureau of Land Management official Mike Ford, who deemed it an "extraordinary and liberal interpretation" of regulations.
The decision, made by the BLM's Las Vegas Field Office manager Bruce Sillitoe, ignored an estimated $2.3 million in potential annual city revenue from a lease on city-owned property, instead relying on a $1,207.67 rental payment to the BLM from 2023. This opaque process has "incensed" Boulder City residents, who have openly protested the project, and prompted the Boulder City Council to unanimously vote to appeal the approval to the Interior Department’s Board of Land Appeals, seeking a stay to halt development.
Boulder City Attorney Brittany Walker criticized the lack of collaborative involvement from the city in the approval process. Patrick Donnelly of the Center for Biological Diversity expressed skepticism about the appeal's success but indicated that a federal lawsuit challenging the use of a "determination of National Environmental Policy Act adequacy" (DNA) could be the next step. The developer plans to use an air-cooled system to comply with Southern Nevada Water Authority's ban on evaporative cooling but the project's massive energy demands, potentially accounting for 64% of NV Energy's sales by 2046, remain a concern.