The Sierra Club may oppose the construction of AI (artificial intelligence) data centers (AIDCs) due to their environmental impacts.  Some of the environmental impacts due to AIDCs which may concern the Sierra Club include:

1. Overuse of water, 2. Excessive energy use (equal to 80,000 to 800,000 homes or about 100 megawatts of energy), 3. Use of natural gas which increases climate change, 4. Light pollution which degrades night skies, 5. Inappropriate land use in urban and rural areas, 6. Excess thermal pollution, 7. Release of toxic chemicals like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), 8. Increased air pollution, 9. Interruption of grid energy needed by others, 10. Increased noise pollution (infrasound, ultrasonic noise, tonal and low-frequency noise, and vibrations), 11. Increased number of high voltage transmission lines and extremely low frequency electrical fields, 12. Increased fire risks, 13. Increased use of herbicides, 14. Increased use of rare earth elements along with damage due to mining these minerals, 15. Increased use of electronic waste and the hazardous waste they create, 16. Increased radiation risks if AIDCs are run by nuclear power, 17. Increased use of eminent domain to take private lands from property owners, 18. Increased flooding, 19. Increased public health impacts due to asthma, 20. Increased contribution to endocrine disruption, 21. Increased synergistic effects due to multiple environmental pollutants and stressors, 22. Over-riding local and state control of development like cell towers, and other environmental effects.

There is one environmental impact that hasn’t been talked about much, but which is of great concern to the Sierra Club and Americans who love, visit, carefully use, and enjoy our federal public lands.  President Trump has placed AIDCs on public lands which allows for their commercialization, degradation, and destruction.  Our federal public lands should not be treated as subsidies for privatized industrial parks. 

Currently, Trump is considering the transfer of more than 17,000 acres of federal land in Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah for 12 AIDCs.  Locations in other areas for AIDCs have been recommended where there are public lands.  Trump has ordered the Department of the Interior and the Department of Energy to find and offer sites on federal lands so that AIDCs can be built quickly.

Trump is pushing for little or no environmental analysis and public input (we own federal public lands) by designating these proposed AIDCs as categorical exclusions which means they don’t have to meet requirements found in the National Environmental Policy Act.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved the Townsite Data Center in June 2026 in Nevada for 88.5 acres of public land in Boulder City, 25 miles southeast of Las Vegas.

There was no environmental analysis or public input for a project that was supposed to be a solar and battery storage facility.  In other words, the BLM used a “bait and switch” strategy to keep the public from knowing about, commenting, and stating whether it supported or didn’t this “ghost” AIDC project due to its environmental impacts or for other reasons.

The Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity have challenged this approved permit which will probably end up in court if the administrative appeal isn’t granted and won.  The Sierra Club supports actions that require community participation and is against fossil fuel powered AIDCs on protected lands.

Your U.S. Congressperson and two U.S. Senators need to hear from you that you are opposed to the use of federal public lands for AIDCs.  This is a critical issue that needs our support now and until this anti-environmental administration either backs off or is out-of-office.  Act now!

The following sources of information were used in preparing this article:

1. “How We Fight Back”, Tim Whitehouse, email from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), October 8, 2026.

2. “AI Data Center Health Impacts”, Environmental Health News, Environmental Health Sciences website, October 9, 2026.

3. “Ask an Expert:  How could data centers impact public lands?”, Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) website, September 8, 2026.

4. “The Trump Administration Is Trying to Build Data Centers on Public Lands”, Dana Drugmand, Sierra Magazine, August 3, 2026.

5. “Principles for Data Center Development and Operation”, Climate Action Campaign, a coalition which the Sierra Club is a member, Sierra Club website, October 8, 2026.

Photo of data center campus in Hutto, TX, used by permission from https://www.istockphoto.com/legal/license-agreement