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Nevada's remote Basin and Range region is facing new challenges as plans for AI infrastructure move into the region, as reported by the Financial Times. A proposed 235-mile high-voltage transmission line called Greenlink North is planned to follow the path of U.S. 50, often called the “loneliest road in America.” This project, alongside numerous planned solar farms, would triple the energy capacity of NV Energy, primarily to meet the massive power demands of new data centers and AI engine rooms.
A broad coalition of hunters, wildlife advocates, environmental groups, academics, and Tribes opposes the project. The key to their legal argument centers on the potential catastrophic impact to the greater sage-grouse, an umbrella species that represents the health of the entire sagebrush ecosystem. While the bird is protected under Nevada's Greater Sage-grouse Conservation Plan, it is not a federally endangered species.
The AI infrastructure also threatens the livelihoods of ranchers who rely on BLM lands for grazing for their sheep and cattle, and are concerned about how planned solar projects will destroy vegetation and restrict grazing access. “It’s gonna be the end of us if they allow it,” one rancher told the Financial Times.
The AI boom is the latest in a series of resource extraction “gold rushes" in Nevada's history, and opponents argue that there must be a balanced way to pursue energy development without destroying fragile public lands. “Everybody looks at it as a place to dip their pick in the mountains and draw something out of it, even if it’s sunshine or wind,” said Kyle Horvath, the Eureka County tourism director. “There’s a way to do it, and it’s not having another gold rush.”
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[Tribes are] going to use their sovereignty and their power to continue to care for the land, whether it’s this administration or the next. That’s what the Tribes have always done historically. We just want an administration that’s going to work with us.”
