(Tribune News Service) — More data centers may be built in the Tucson area, with one slated for Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and another complex in the far north end of suburban Marana.

The town of Marana is reviewing applications from a subsidiary of Project Blue’s developer Beale Infrastructure to build a data-center complex with an unknown total number of data centers on two parcels totaling about 600 acres.

At the same time, the U.S. Air Force is giving prospective private data-center operators until Nov. 15 to file applications to build new commercial centers at Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson and four other Air Force bases stretching from Edwards in the central California desert to McGuire in southern New Jersey.

The operators would pay the federal government to lease Air Force sites for data-center use. The site at Davis-Monthan would cover 300 acres.

The Air Force seeks proposals to build data centers that serve artificial intelligence. This year, the Trump administration has issued executive orders aimed at removing obstacles to AI development at federal facilities, as it seeks to encourage the booming technology.

Like Project Blue — which remains active despite a stinging rejection from the Tucson City Council — the proposed new centers carry the promise of massive investments and new jobs.

But just like Project Blue, these projects are also raising still-unanswered questions about their projected energy and water use — and facing opposition from many of the same activists who have fought Project Blue.

The Air Force’s request for proposals for its data centers requires all applicants to provide their own source of water and energy supply. It doesn’t specify where the water and energy would come from.

The Air Force is seeking investments of $500 million to build data centers at Davis-Monthan and each of the other four air bases it’s seeking proposals for.

In a statement to the Star, the group No Desert Data Centers Coalition noted that on Oct. 21, more than 350 local residents attended a Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting “united behind the belief that any desert data center is wrong for all of Pima County, not just the initial Project Blue location.”

“We know that air-cooled data centers simply move the water burden from on-site to upstream energy production, and still lead to increased electric bills,” the coalition’s statement said. “No amount of greenwashing they do will change that, so to Beale and Amazon, we repeat our slogan ‘not one drop for data’ in our desert community.”

Beale officials didn’t respond to a request from the Star to comment directly on the No Desert Data Center Coalition’s statement opposing its Marana proposal.

President Donald Trump is a big supporter of data centers. He has issued an executive order to encourage “the rapid and efficient buildout of data center infrastructure.”

The order instructs federal agencies “to streamline environmental reviews and permitting for data centers and related infrastructure by leveraging existing exemptions and creating new ones to expedite the construction of qualifying projects,” a fact sheet on the order said.

The order directed the Defense Department, the Department of Energy and the Interior Department to “authorize data center construction on appropriate Federal lands.”

The data centers will help the U.S. “secure economic prosperity, national security, and scientific leadership,” the fact sheet said, adding, “AI data centers and supporting infrastructure, such as energy systems and semiconductors, are essential for powering America’s technological and industrial future.

“This initiative ensures American leadership in AI and critical technologies, positioning the U.S. to outpace global competitors and drive innovation for decades to come,” it said.

The No Desert Data Center Coalition, however, said, “We will also do everything we can to stop the data center at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Our region can’t afford any water and energy-guzzling hyperscale data centers.”

The Air Force data-center plan projects would be built in accordance with two executive orders issued by Trump, the Air Force said. One from January is called “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.” The other, from July 2025, is called “Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure.”

If the Davis-Monthan data center requires the drilling of new wells for its water supply, the Arizona Department of Water Resources will require that the center operator demonstrate its water use won’t cause significant declines in any neighboring wells.

The Air Force request seeks proposals that would, first, “optimize” the amount of money that the center operator would pay in cash to the military as a consideration for getting a lease on the air base parcels.

Second, the center operator would have to use Air Force property “in a manner that minimizes and mitigates impact and risk to (Air Force) missions, government functions, and the surrounding community in general.” Specifically, the operator would have to include “a mitigation and contingency plan to ensure the ongoing operations and life cycle of utilities (e.g., energy, water, communication bandwidth), and access to affordable, reliable and quality utilities,” the request for proposals said.

The center operators who lease the Air Force sites will also have to do so “in a manner that supports positive relations with state and local governmental authorities and the communities adjacent to the properties,” the request for proposals said.

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