Tag: public lands

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who is heavily invested in the AI industry, is leading the charge to allow tech companies to build data centers on the public lands he oversees.

The board found regulators treated an 88.5-acre data center as barely different from the solar farm it was supposed to replace.

The Bureau of Land Management now has until September 21 to explain why it treated a 167-megawatt data center as the same project as the solar plant it originally approved.

The board found regulators reused a three-year-old environmental review written for a solar plant, never studying the data center's own effect on water, power or a threatened desert tortoise.

The rule's own text puts the 2001 protections at 58.5 million acres, and comments close at midnight on September 21.

House Democrats have opened an investigation for insider trading.

The administration is moving to speed fossil fuel leasing on public lands while scientists warn that ocean temperatures are entering dangerous new territory.

A new Republican bill would open millions of acres of protected land to fossil fuel and timber companies while gutting environmental review processes, in a bid to help fund massive tax cuts.

The Biden-Harris administration’s decision to retain protections for 28 million acres in Alaska marks a significant reversal of the previous administration’s plans to open these lands to extractive industries, preserving vital natural, cultural, and subsistence resources for Alaska Native communities.

The Bureau of Land Management’s new Oil and Gas Rule is said to save taxpayers money, help ensure public lands are used for their highest value, and better protect communities and the environment.