People in Boulder City, Nevada, had concerns about putting a data center near their community, which seems like a reasonable time for a government to listen. Water, electricity, noise, the desert itself: these are fairly substantial things to bring up before someone arrives with a building full of computers and an inspirational presentation.
In May, the city’s Planning Commission voted 6–1 to recommend against adding data centers to its land management process, citing the need for more oversight. The developer, Townsite Solar 2, had been pursuing permission on both city and federal land. After the Bureau of Land Management approved a data center on the federal parcel in June, the company withdrew its city application. The city’s account of the sequence makes clear that both applications were already underway.
That distinction matters. This wasn’t a new federal application dreamed up after a local rejection. It was a project with two routes toward approval, one of which continued even as the community raised objections. For the people living nearby, the practical question is still uncomfortable: how much influence do you have over a project affecting your home when the approval comes from somewhere else?
In reporting published today, the Associated Press describes how data centers have become a major issue in Nevada’s governor’s race. Worries about utility costs, water, and development are drawing neighbors across political lines into the same fight. Democratic challenger Aaron Ford opposes data centers on public land; Republican Governor Joe Lombardo supports projects with community backing. Both say developers should meet state requirements and cover their energy costs.
There is something encouraging about people discovering that, whatever their disagreements elsewhere, they would all like an actual say in what happens down the road. You don’t have to settle every argument in American politics before asking who’s paying for the infrastructure.
Townsite’s developer promises construction jobs, permanent technical positions, and tax revenue. It also says the facility would fund its own transmission line and buy wholesale power, and use closed-loop cooling rather than evaporative cooling. Those are claims worth examining. A careful review should establish what a project would actually require, what its benefits would be, and which promises can be enforced. An economic forecast is useful information; it can’t answer every question about a place.
That review is where the federal approval ran into trouble. BLM relied on an environmental assessment prepared for a solar project, rather than preparing a new or revised assessment for the data center. In a September 1 order, the Interior Board of Land Appeals granted a temporary stay, finding the challengers likely to succeed on their argument that the two projects were not substantially the same. A solar facility and a data center may both have fences, roads, and equipment. My house and a medieval fortress also have doors. I would still expect the planning department to notice if my husband started installing a drawbridge.
The board’s order paused the approval while the appeal proceeds. That pause remains a meaningful achievement, even though it doesn’t settle the final outcome. Boulder City and environmental groups challenged the decision, and the review process gave them a way to stop it from becoming irreversible while their objections were heard.
That is what public participation needs to accomplish. People should be able to change a decision, require better information, and secure protections before the consequences arrive. Being invited to speak is lovely. Having someone listen closely enough to alter the plans is considerably more useful.
In Washington, another dispute concerns how much time people get to object before a landscape is permanently changed. Judge Ana Reyes today prohibited further tree cutting at East Potomac Golf Links through October 26, following extensive removal over the holiday weekend.
The historic public course is part of Trump’s ambitions to remake Washington. At Monday’s hearing, Reyes sharply criticized the government’s conduct. Her order also requires three business days’ advance written notice to the court and plaintiffs before permanent or irreparable modifications during the pause.
There is a reason notice matters when the work involves trees. A court can demand answers afterward, but it cannot instruct a mature tree to resume being forty years old. Giving people time to challenge a decision is part of protecting their ability to affect it.
Meanwhile, a final EPA rule published today moves the deadline for covered facilities to submit hazardous-substance spill response plans from June 1, 2027, to June 1, 2030. It also removes references to climate change and environmental justice from the requirements.
EPA says facilities need more time and assistance to comply, and that the language changes align with administration policy. Opposing commenters warned of environmental risks during the delay and weaker protections for communities facing disproportionate harm.
These are plans for responding to hazardous substances reaching waterways and shorelines. The consequences of an inadequate response extend well beyond the facility’s property line. A three-year delay therefore deserves public attention, even if it arrives with the thrilling title of a regulatory filing.
Deleting a phrase from a rule doesn’t establish that the underlying risk has disappeared. The useful question is whether the revised requirements will prepare facilities for the hazards people actually face, and who will be left dealing with the consequences if they don’t.
Across these stories, the decisions concern places people share and depend on. A desert landscape, a public park, a waterway downstream from an industrial facility: each deserves more care than a process designed mainly to get the paperwork finished. The people asking questions are doing necessary work.
And for Oregon readers, there is something concrete to do today: October 13 is the voter registration deadline. Counties begin mailing ballots tomorrow, October 14. Check your registration and address through My Vote, and send the reminder to someone who might need it. The Secretary of State’s election page has the dates and instructions.
Here on the Homefront, several readers were understandably concerned about my white, peely, and numb finger after yesterday’s report. Some of those readers were very qualified individuals, so I have made a doctor’s appointment. They got me in tomorrow. My middle finger will be receiving professional attention, which is probably overdue considering how much unpaid work it has done expressing my opinions.
My daughter missed another day of school today. She had a fever last night and continues to sound like a miniature tobacco baron, although at four years old she has had very little time to build that sort of empire. I never had a fever with my version of this illness, so I’m wondering whether my poor baby picked up two bugs at once. Whatever the explanation, I wish I could take the miserable part from her.
Ezra is very snotty but happy all the same. He has gotten to see his two-year-old cousin a few times this week, and running around with him has been an absolute joy. Now if he could expand operations beyond the inside of the house, he would be even happier. The nose is having a difficult week; the rest of him remains committed to a full schedule.
I’m still enjoying the pastels, and I still can’t reasonably convince myself to go to bed when I should. Apparently, I believe that one more color will bring the evening to a sensible conclusion, despite considerable evidence to the contrary. We’ll get there eventually.
My husband and I had both been on the mend, and now we’re feeling like crap again with what seems to be a second virus. I had hoped our household’s contribution to respiratory illness season was complete, but apparently there was a follow-up assignment.
So cheers from our house to yours. We have a doctor’s appointment on the calendar, a small tobacco baron resting at home, and a very happy baby leaving a trail of snot through his social engagements. I would prefer fewer germs, but I’m glad there are still things to enjoy in the middle of them.
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So sorry you and you family aren't feeling very well. I sympathise. My husband and I had vaccinations against Covid-19 and flu on Saturday morning, as part of a national drive to treat "old people". We felt bloody awful, with sore arms and every joint hurting, on Saturday night and Sunday, and are only just getting back to normal. I suppose it is better than catching the real infections, as you obviously have. My darling 82-yr-old husband is in remission (we hope) from colon and liver cancer, and so we have to be very careful with him.