This is an amusing little scandal, but it seems to be only a procedural issue. Assuming that Google has some basic competence, it selected locations where it's ultimately possible to build data centers while complying with all legal requirements.
My guess is that the government will eventually find that all requirements have been satisfied and let the projects move on. But because this is now a controversial issue, someone with the standing will very likely file a complaint. Then the projects will be stuck in administrative courts for a year or two.
> This is an amusing little scandal, but it seems to be only a procedural issue.
If you go out and illegally cut down a tree, that's not "only a procedural issue". They illegally logged 815 acres of forest.
Breaking the law is a procedural issue.
Logging a few hundred hectares was not a problem. Google could have done that without additional permits, if their intention was to plant a new forest afterwards. Environmental impact assessment was only necessary, because they intended to replace the forest with something else.
The key question is whether Google can comply with the law after the fact. If they complete the assessment and the government finds nothing that would prevent the construction of the data centers, the project can go on. Maybe there will be some minor sanctions, as well as some delays, as they didn't do things properly the first time. And even if there is something that prevents construction, Google can still probably comply by planting a new forest.
they illegally destroyed 815 acres of forest
> without completing an environmental impact assessment (EIA).
Because they didn't follow the procedure of first completing the EIA, which Google is surely familiar with, with all of their other datacenters/construction (especially ANYTHING in California, which was detrimentally bad until recently [1]).
[1] https://abc7news.com/post/gov-gavin-newsom-signs-new-bills-a...
be real, they will just pay off the local officials to pass zoning laws to make it all legal. As they have done across the states.
The environmental impact assessment requirement is a national law, and the national government is responsible for approving it. But since elections are coming and the issue has become controversial, the government coalition will happily ignore it and let administrators and judges sort it out. They have bigger things to worry about.
who is left at the EPA to review it?
The forest and Google datacenters in the article are not in the US.
Although we shouldn't forget that we can lose trees in the US in order to accommodate data centers too.
https://www.opb.org/article/2025/03/29/portland-general-elec...
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/chestnut-grove-...
This time, so take EPA equivalent in whatever jurisdiction. You’re nitpicking.
Finland is the second lowest-corruption country in the world.
https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2025
Its a pretty egregious procedural oversight if you want to chalk it up to that.
For sure this is being politicized, for example claiming that the area was reduced to sand due to an overheated data center market. But to clear the land before doing legally required environmental impact studies is a pretty obvious mistake, and frankly I'm not sure how you'd even have landed on a plan for land clearing before doing said study if its required. How would you know what areas to clear, for example?
Yeah, that is not procedural oversight. That's simply not following the law, plain and simple.