BOISE, Idaho — The Bureau of Land Management is evaluating a California energy company’s preliminary pitch to build a 3,700-acre data center on public land north of Twin Falls.

Copia Power is in the pre-application phase ahead of filings to build the project, BLM spokesperson Heather Tiel-Nelson told the Idaho Statesman in an email. Details so far are scarce as Copia works with the BLM’s Shoshone Field Office on the particulars of the plan, Tiel-Nelson said.

Copia’s concept is in its early stages, Tiel-Nelson said — “a long way” from filing a notice of intent on the federal register, which would kick off a public comment period.

The Statesman could not immediately reach Copia or its parent company, EQT, for comment.

The Center for Western Priorities, a conservation advocacy nonprofit, first reported the project through a map tracking data centers on public land throughout the American West.

The plan appears to sit near land once earmarked for the 100,000-acre Lava Ridge wind farm, which was frozen by the Trump Administration last year amid public opposition. The location’s appeal stems in part from the infrastructure already in place: the Midpoint Substation, a key electrical distribution site co-owned by Idaho Power, sits just to the west. A spokesman for Idaho Power could not immediately comment on the Copia proposal.

Copia’s Falcon Data Center is the second planned private data center to eye public land in Idaho in 2026. Earlier this year, a Nevada company rebooted efforts to lease more than 3,700 acres of public land in southern Ada County for a 4-million-square-foot data center complex, as well as a new power plant to help electrify it.

Both plans surfaced after Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, turned on its own $1.2 billion data center near Kuna last month. That plant is 750,000 square feet, and is built on private land that Meta owns through a holding company.

But with AI skyrocketing demand for computing, companies have sought public land for data centers around the Western U.S. In a sweep of BLM data last week, the Center For Western Priorities identified 17 data center projects across six Western states, a figure that doesn’t count applications for supporting infrastructure. Add that in and the number jumps to 35 data center-related projects spanning more than 24,000 acres.

Copia is behind 16 of those applications, according to the Center.

In a statement, Center for Western Priorities Deputy Director Lauren Bogard demanded “robust, site-specific environmental review and public input opportunities, as well as meaningful, negotiated community benefits that ensure the public is compensated when private companies profit from public lands.”

“Data centers are not like oil, gas, or minerals, which are extracted from public lands because that’s where they exist,” she said. “Unlike mining or drilling, there are no natural resources that make it necessary to develop data centers on public lands, and there is no reason to assume data centers belong on them.”

The push to build on public land comes amid backlash against data centers, which have a strong ally in President Donald Trump.

A May Gallup poll found that seven in 10 Americans would be opposed to seeing a data center constructed in their area. A greater percentage of respondents would rather have a nuclear power plant nearby than a server farm, according to Gallup data.

On social media in September, Trump urged communities to “let Data Reign” in support of America’s “Golden Goose”: artificial intelligence.

“The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor,” he wrote on Truth Social. “If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign. The good news is that there are plenty of other places that want them. If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame.”

On Monday, Idaho Democrats slammed the Falcon Data Center project in a joint statement from candidates seeking office in District 26, which represents the region.

“Republican leaders have pushed to fast-track projects like this while giving the data center industry sweetheart tax breaks,” said Sen. Ron Taylor, D-Hailey, and candidates Anita Janis and Kevin Marsh. “Idahoans need leaders who aren’t afraid to stand up to the politicians and powerful corporations behind these deals. Those are the policies our Republican opponents are running to defend. We’ll fight to protect our public lands and water, even when it means taking on those in power.”

In a statement to the Statesman, a spokesman for the Idaho Conservation League pushed further, asking for a moratorium on data centers across Idaho.

“We do not believe that data centers belong on public lands,” ICL Public Lands and Wildlife Director John Robison told the Statesman in an email. “The benefits of data centers appear to go to out-of-state billionaires but Idahoans would appear to bear all the costs in terms of water, energy, and open space. We believe that Idaho should put a moratorium on data centers until we learn more about them and if and how they should be permitted.”

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