{"id":25631,"date":"2026-10-29T21:42:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T01:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/?p=25631"},"modified":"2026-10-30T09:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T13:43:15","slug":"wyden-padilla-merkley-demand-answers-over-sec-burgums-role-in-hijacking-public-lands-for-data-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/wyden-padilla-merkley-demand-answers-over-sec-burgums-role-in-hijacking-public-lands-for-data-centers\/","title":{"rendered":"Wyden, Padilla, Merkley Demand Answers Over Sec. Burgum\u2019s Role in Hijacking Public Lands for Data Centers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>Inquiry Follows Release of Internal Calendars Showing Meetings Between Burgum and Data Center Developers<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Washington DC<\/em><\/strong><strong>&nbsp;\u2014&nbsp;<\/strong>U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., today demanded answers from Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Doug Burgum over his role in helping broker deals to build data centers on public lands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In September, it was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonsun.com\/climate-environment\/trump-administration-data-centers-public-lands-proposals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reportado<\/a>\u00a0that the Trump administration aims to hijack nearly 18,000 acres of public land across Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho and Utah for the development of new data centers. Subsequently, the DOI released internal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.doi.gov\/foia\/os\/secretarial-calendars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">calendars<\/a>\u00a0showing that since 2025, Burgum has met repeatedly with data center developers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<strong>The timing of these meetings taking place concurrently with the administration\u2019s efforts to pursue data center development on public lands raises serious questions about your involvement in these deals<\/strong>,\u201d the Senators wrote. \u201c<strong>The complete lack of transparency regarding these actions compounds our concerns. Given Congress\u2019s role in funding and conducting oversight over the responsible management of public lands, the DOI has an obligation to respond to Congressional oversight inquiries<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>La carta completa es\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wyden.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/burgum_data_centers_oversight.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">aqu\u00ed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">###<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inquiry Follows Release of Internal Calendars Showing Meetings Between Burgum and Data Center Developers Washington, D.C.&nbsp;\u2014&nbsp;U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., today demanded answers from Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Doug Burgum over his role in helping broker deals to build data centers on public lands. In September, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":24864,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[36,45],"class_list":["post-25631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","tag-natural-resources-and-rural-development","tag-tackling-climate-change"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Wyden, Padilla, Merkley Demand Answers Over Sec. 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