WASHINGTON (BRAIN) — Conservation group The Wilderness Society announced it's requesting a moratorium on building artifical intelligence data centers on Bureau of Land Management land in the West.
AI data center projects are being considered for more than 17,000 acres across Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. The Wilderness Society said if the administration won't enact a moratorium, Congress should pass one during the upcoming lame-duck session.
"The pause is immediately and urgently necessary to allow policymakers to provide the public with information about the potential threats posed by data centers to water supplies, energy demand, wildlife habitat and public access, and an opportunity to weigh in on whether data centers should ever be permitted on our national public lands," according to a news release by the group.
Tracy Stone-Manning, president of The Wilderness Society, added, "Public lands have been handed down to use as shared places where we make lifetime memories, hike, hunt, camp, and fish. Before we rush headlong into sacrificing these lands for an industrial AI boom, our elected leaders need to hit the pause button and ask the public — the owners of these lands — if this is what we want for our shared public lands. Future generations deserve no less."
BLM land is used extensively for mountain biking in Western states. No industry group has specifically endorsed the Society's statement on data centers, but industry suppliers and retailers including REI and Patagonia are supporters of the Society, which also is part of the Outdoor Alliance along with PeopleForBikes. The Society also has cooperated with other bicycle groups on projects in the past.
