Lyon County commissioners voted 3-1 Thursday to approve a zoning change needed to build the massive Monarch Data Center near Yerington, clearing a hurdle for a data center development even as many other jurisdictions in the state look to pause or re-assess data center buildout. 

When Copia Power unveiled plans for the Monarch Data Center — a 4.6 million-square-foot complex spanning 505 acres in rural Lyon County — it did so without owning a single acre of the land the project would sit on. That's not unheard of.

NV Energy's poke-in-the-eye of a lawsuit against Northern Nevada artificial intelligence data center developer Tract certainly spices up what promises to be a long fight for fairness on many fronts.

Manse Technology Campus sounds practically collegiate, but it's not a university annex. As presented, it's a massive, privately funded data center complex with a 900-acre footprint.

"This is not a change in direction," said Taylor Adams, president and CEO of the organization, now called Northern NV Now, a name meant to be action-oriented and forward-thinking. "It is a clearer way to say who we have become."

Boulder City officials took steps Tuesday to challenge the use of nearby federal land for a data center project that might use more than three times as much energy as the city's existing energy load, according to one estimate.

It's little surprise by now that Gov. Joe Lombardo remains confidently on the bright side of data center development in Nevada.

The Nevada Independent will be tracking what data center-related actions local governments across the state are taking. This page will be updated as officials take more actions. 

The Clark County Commission will be discussing potential new regulations and approval criteria for data center construction in the area.

Just weeks after a developer asked state energy regulators to let it build its own temporary natural gas plant to power Northern Nevada data centers, another developer is asking regulators to approve an even larger, permanent gas plant to power additional data centers.

While Henderson is considering a moratorium, other municipalities are pushing forward on the sale and construction of new centers across Clark County.

As the AI data center gold rush in Northern Nevada expands with ever-larger hyperscale projects taking shape, SB254 is looking like a relic of a distant past.

City staff will work in the coming months to craft a proposal that encompasses suggestions from the public, outside groups council members and regional officials who have been studying the issue for more than a year.

Most of the Nevadans I've spoken with aren't railing against technology. They're concerned about the voracious energy and water consumption and the heat mitigation efforts associated with data centers.

From the governor's race to a contest for a rural county commission seat, data centers have emerged as a central issue in elections up and down — and even on — Nevada ballots this year amid growing public opposition.

It's not surprising that a new Gallup poll finds 71 percent of Americans are opposed to having artificial intelligence (AI) data centers in their communities. That's far higher than the 53 percent who are against having a nuclear power plant in their area.

Even among council members who supported the moratorium, there are disagreements about how to proceed.

It's important to remember that most of the winners of the data center construction boom aren't tech broligarchs min-maxing their nootropic stack so they can produce 7 percent more efficient vibe code prompts.

In what experts say is a first for Nevada, a data center developer is asking permission from state energy regulators to operate a new temporary natural gas power plant because NV Energy doesn't have the capacity to immediately serve it — potentially skirting parts of the state's regulatory process.

It would be a mistake for public officials to doubt the depth of the sincerity and the growing concern behind the comments of those who turned out — again — to speak out against what many perceive as an existential threat to their community.