An administrative panel this week halted the planned construction of a data center on federal land in Nevada while the environmental effects are considered.
The municipality of Boulder City, Nevada, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), and the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter are challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s approval of a data center on 80 acres of BLM-managed land that is within Boulder City limits. The groups contend that BLM illegally allowed the firm Skylar Energy Resources to replace an approved solar array project with a data center project without performing new studies on the environmental impact, consulting the US Fish and Wildlife Service about potential effects on endangered species, or taking required steps to seek public comments on the new plan.
US Department of the Interior Administrative Judge David Gunter signed on Tuesday an order that stays construction and consolidates the challenges to the BLM’s decision.
In 2022, Skylar and BLM signed an agreement that granted the firm a 30-year right-of-way for a 19-megawatt solar array along with a 35-megawatt battery storage system. However, the company and its Townsite Solar 2 subsidiary sent the BLM a replacement plan for a data center in November 2025.
The BLM had studied the expected environmental impact of a photovoltaic solar array, and it later determined that warehouse-like data centers would likely have similar enough effects on natural areas that a subsequent environmental impact study was unnecessary, according to Gunter’s order, a copy of which was provided by the Center for Biological Diversity. The BLM noted that both plans would use the same locations, acreage, and perimeter for industrial uses, connect to the same road and electrical infrastructure, and use similar construction techniques.
Gunter wrote that Boulder City, CBD, and the Sierra Club were likely to prevail in their challenge because the two projects are dissimilar and the BLM should have conducted meaningful analysis of the differences in environmental effects, so the prior environmental analysis is likely insufficient.
“BLM has not studied the Townsite data center project, or indeed any other data center project, in any environmental document,” he wrote.
He said that CBD had identified a “litany of differences” in its petition for a stay on construction, citing differences in the height, ground cover, operational times, noise, water consumption, and construction needs as well as noted the gulf between an electricity generation project and a power-consuming one. Boulder City had also argued that the proposed 300,000-square-foot data center campus was the antithesis of the solar project.
Meanwhile, allowing construction to progress would cause irreparable harm that outweighs the temporary harm to Skylar and other stakeholders with an interest in data center infrastructure, the judge wrote.
Olivia Tanager, director of the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter, said in a statement that Tuesday’s ruling was a victory for the public and it supports the organization’s contention that public lands should serve the public.
“The people of Boulder City have made clear that they do not want a data center on public lands, and this ruling gives their voices the weight they deserve,” Tanager said. “Data centers do not belong on public lands, and we will continue to fight unfettered data center development.”
Patrick Donnelly, of the Center for Biological Diversity, added that the ruling shows that communities can win their fights against data centers on public lands.
In the ruling, Gunter wrote that CBD’s appeal had described the potential loss of federal lands for hiking, education, and stargazing, among other irreparable injuries that may be used to support a petition to stay a construction project.
Federal officials, though, are likely to pursue more data center projects on public lands. President Trump signed last year an executive order for his administration to pursue the use of federal lands for data centers and reduce environmental review requirements for them.
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