FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Sept 18, 2026
Contact: Lisa Young, 208-841-8587
Breaking: Data center proposed on public lands south of Boise
Boise, ID — Reporting by the Washington Sun just revealed that Rhea Data, a subsidiary of Nevada-based Arevia Power, is proposing to build a data center just outside of Boise on public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), just south of the expanding Micron campus. The four million square foot data center would take over 3,000 acres of public lands and include an on-site natural gas plant.
The Trump Administration directed the BLM to identify sites for new data centers. This Rhea Data project is one of at least 12 across the country that have recently been uncovered in the public BLM database.
“This is unacceptable,” said Lisa Young, Director of the Idaho Chapter of the Sierra Club. “We are already seeing new gas plants being built by Idaho Power to serve the massive 24/7 energy needs of the Meta data center in Kuna and Micron’s new chip fabs. An additional data center with its own gas plant would wreck our local air quality and climate, not to mention the countless other impacts from a project like this.”
Data centers require a large amount of energy, water, and land to operate. Without strong safeguards, data centers wind back critical climate protections, increase household energy bills, and worsen air pollution and water stress in our communities.
“Our public lands in Idaho are not playgrounds for out-of-state tech companies,” said Vienne Aberle, Communications Coordinator for Idaho Sierra Club, “they are for wildlife, clean water, and for public recreation. The lack of transparency from the Trump Administration is a clear attempt to block the public from engaging in the process, likely because of how unpopular public lands sell-offs are. Idahoans will not stand silently by, especially once the required environmental review processes begin.”
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Idaho Sierra Club is Idaho's leading grassroots environmental organization, building a movement for climate and ecological justice.
9/21 UPDATE: Here is a map of the proposed site, from the BLM's website. It sits just south of the Blacks Creek Bird Reserve, off Kuna Mora Rd.
