The Biden Administration is drafting a plan to enable the construction of data centers and electrical power plants on federally owned land.

First reported by E&E News and citing people "familiar with the matter," the US government is looking to enable faster development of AI data centers to avoid falling behind other nations.

According to the E&E report, the government is trying to write up a plan before Biden's term ends on January 20. That plan could involve relaxing environmental restrictions on some parcels of federal land, and enabling the development and construction of dedicated power plants initially using natural gas.

The Biden Administration reportedly considered using the Defense Protection Act, which gives the president a wide range of emergency powers, to achieve its goal, but shelved those plans earlier this week.

White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson called the report "inaccurate" but did not specify which parts.

“This administration is continuing to work with all stakeholders to ensure the US leads the world in AI, and AI data centers are powered by clean energy without raising electricity costs for consumers,” Patterson said to E&E in an email.

Should such a plan go through, it would enable big tech companies to develop their own power plants to feed power directly to their data centers. E&E noted that no draft text has yet been shared and there is no guarantee such a plan will come to fruition before Biden's term ends.

Earlier this week, President-Elect Trump announced that Japanese telecommunications and IT operator SoftBank would invest $100n in the US. Trump said this would “ensure that artificial intelligence (AI), emerging technologies, and other industries of tomorrow are built created, and grown right here in the USA.”

What Trump's presidency will mean for the data center remains unknown, but concerns abound for the renewable energy transition in particular. During his previous term, Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accord and has since rallied against the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest piece of legislation to address climate change.

Trump has also claimed that, once he takes office, companies that invest more than $1 billion in the US would “receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals.”