BLM Head Steve Pearce Ices Public Out to Fast-Track Public Land Giveaway for New Data Center in Nevada
Decision to SHUT Public Out and Dispose Public Lands Confirms Deeply-Conflicted Selloff Steve Pearce Hasn’t Changed
HELENA, MT – New Bureau of Land Management Director Steve Pearce recently used an “extraordinary and liberal interpretation of existing law and regulations” to approve a data center on public land in Boulder City, Nevada, skipping environmental reviews and shutting residents and the public out of the process entirely. The move could cost the city more than $2 million in annual revenue it would have collected under a standard lease. BLM’s own internal emails show the agency drafted a press release nonsensically praising the deal as “responsible stewardship” before quietly deciding not to publish it.
This is par for the course for Pearce, who supported selling off public lands seven separate times as a member of Congress, and his own financial disclosures show he made as much as $2.13 million from real estate investments in the year before Trump nominated him to run the very agency deciding who gets to build on public land.
“This backroom deal to sell out America’s public lands for a data center reeks and proves Selloff Steve Pearce hasn’t changed. This was the entirely predictable outcome of putting a conflicted real estate investor in charge of America’s public lands,” said Jayson O’Neill, spokesperson for Save Our Parks. “Pearce fast-tracked this data center sell-off, iced residents and the public out of the decision process, and then tried to bury the paper trail. The head of the BLM shouldn’t be treating our public lands like inventory to profit off of when some developer comes along. Every American who values public land should be alarmed that the person deciding its fate has spent his career trying to sell it off.”
Pearce’s Public Land Sell-Off For A New Data Center:
A data center developer used an unusual legal shortcut to get approval to develop on federal public land in Boulder City, Nevada, bypassing public scrutiny and environmental review
Steve Pearce’s BLM invoked a Trump executive order to determine that an existing environmental review for a solar farm was sufficient for the data center approval
A former BLM official called the interpretation "extraordinary," "liberal," and "unprecedented" in his 25-year career
The public was effectively shut out of the approval process, with no collaborative involvement
Boulder City stands to lose an estimated $2.3 million in annual revenue compared to a proposed city lease; the developer's last disclosed payment to the BLM was only $1,207.67
The maneuver by BLM’s Steve Pearce sets a dangerous precedent for future data center approvals on public land using similar shortcuts
Community residents oppose the data center due to concerns about air pollution, heat emissions, and other environmental unknowns
Boulder City has voted unanimously to appeal the decision to the Interior Department
Additional Resources:
Reach out to Save Our Parks spokesperson Jayson O’Neill at jayson@focalpointstrategygroup.com for more research on BLM head Steve Pearce’s real estate investments and conflicts.
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