Outgoing US President Joe Biden has signed an executive order to open up federal lands for data center development.

The move will make government-owned land available to developers for lease and require agencies to make efforts to improve transmission infrastructure to those developments.

White House
– Getty Images

“Today, President Biden issued an executive order to secure American leadership in artificial intelligence (AI) and ensure that the infrastructure needed for advanced AI operations—including large-scale data centers and new clean power infrastructure—can be built with speed and scale here in the United States,” the White House announced today.

The order directs agencies to make federal sites available for AI data centers and new clean power facilities, facilitate interconnection to the electric grid, fulfill permitting obligations “expeditiously,” and advance transmission development around federal sites.

Sites owned by the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Energy (DOE) will be made available for lease to developers for gigawatt-scale AI data center campuses. Developers selected to build on these sites will be required to bring online sufficient clean energy generation resources to match the full electricity needs of their data centers.

The Department of the Interior will identify lands it manages that are suitable for clean energy and can support data centers on DOE and DoD sites, while enhancing permitting processes for geothermal projects.

The DOE will coordinate with developers in constructing, financing, facilitating, and planning the upgrade and development of transmission lines around those sites – as well as identifying underutilized connection points or sites with preexisting interconnection approvals that are yet to be built.

The energy agency will also be required to “take further steps” to promote distributed energy resources, advance the siting of clean generation resources at existing interconnection points, and support the deployment of nuclear energy.

“The executive order announced today will ensure the United States has the infrastructure — including large-scale data centers and clean power facilities — necessary to maintain America’s competitive advantage and safeguard our national security interests,” Vice President Kamala Harris said. “By activating the full force of the federal government to speed up and scale AI operations here in the United States, we are securing our global leadership on AI, which will have a profound impact on our economy, society, and national security for generations to come.”

The order notes the agencies will have to prioritize and dedicate staff toward this effort to enable “timely” permits, and the DoD will start environmental analysis immediately to improve the speed and accuracy of future site-specific reviews.

The DoD, DOE, and the Department of Commerce will additionally support producers of transformers and other grid components as federal agencies explore loan-guarantee programs to advance AI infrastructure development.

The order also makes it clear developers will be footing the bill in order to avoid raising electricity prices for consumers. The contractual obligations that DoD and DOE will impose on developers on federal sites include paying the full cost of building and operating infrastructure on the sites – including clean energy, as well as purchasing an “appropriate share” of domestically-made chips.

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