The forest came down before the assessment

Four weeks after Google called Finland the site of its largest single investment in Europe, a Finnish regulator has told it to stop digging. On Tuesday the Finnish Supervisory Agency, known by its Finnish initials LVV, called on Tuike Finland, the Google company developing data centres at Muhos and Kajaani, to suspend preparatory work that significantly alters the environment at both sites. It must stop immediately and no later than 23 October, and keep the work suspended until the projects' environmental impact assessments are complete.

The request is precise about what has to stop. It covers, among other things, tree removal, the stripping of topsoil, excavation, blasting, crushing, moving soil, drainage and building site roads and storage areas. Planning, surveying, soil investigations and other work with minor, easily reversible effects can continue. The agency relied on section 32(2) of Finland's Environmental Impact Assessment Act. Tuike Finland has until 14 October to give a written explanation and to say whether it intends to comply. If it does not, the agency says it will consider administrative coercion under the EIA Act or other applicable law, which can be backed by a conditional fine.

Google will not need to be forced. The company has said it will comply, Helsinki Times reported. "We understand the concerns and have fallen short of our own high standards in this instance," Sondre Ronander, a Google spokesman, said in a statement to AFP, reported by Moneycontrol. He said the company had "acted in good faith" and carried out environmental surveys and measures. "As we continue our long-term work in the region, we are advancing our landscaping and biodiversity plans, which include tree planting across 130 hectares at Muhos," he said.

The problem is the order of events. The agency says reports available to it show that large-scale preparatory work has already been done at both sites: trees removed, topsoil stripped, site roads and storage areas built, ditches and culverts altered and stormwater arrangements made. "Our assessment is that these measures change the environment and cause impacts whose identification and assessment are among the central objectives of the environmental impact assessment procedure," said Tommi Muilu, head of the agency's environment department, in Helsinki Times's translation. Neither assessment is finished; both are expected to conclude during 2026. Muilu's second point goes to the purpose of the law. "Large-scale preparatory measures that change the environment can weaken the advance steering effect of the EIA procedure and narrow the opportunities to examine alternatives and prevent harmful environmental effects," he said, in Komposite's translation from the Finnish.

In other words, an assessment that is meant to shape where and how a project is built loses its point once the ground has been cleared. Google's defence rests on a different statute. Ronander has said Google acted in good faith under Finland's Forest Act, conducted nature surveys and took measures to protect sites with environmental value. The regulator is applying the environmental assessment law.

The complaint came from outside. The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation said in September that more than 300 hectares of forest had been cleared at the Muhos site, at Leppiniemi, while the assessment was still incomplete, and it raised concerns about Google's Otanmäki project in Kajaani. Its chair, Hanna Halmeenpaa, told AFP that "nature sites which should be preserved" had been logged. The 130 hectares Google plans to plant with trees at Muhos is less than half the area the association says was cleared there, on Komposite's comparison of the two figures.

The political cost may be time. Sari Multala, Finland's minister of the environment and climate, said Google's projects would probably be delayed by the problems with the assessments, AFP reported. In an interview with Helsingin Sanomat on Sunday, she called it "a serious matter" if the company and its subcontractors had acted as claimed.

Finland had sold itself on speed and supply. When Google announced on 9 September that it would invest at least €13bn in Finnish AI infrastructure through 2028, CNBC described the country's appeal as land and power that are in short supply in most of Europe. The plan covers data centres in Muhos, Vaala, Kajaani and Hamina, where Google already runs one, and a 22-year life-extension power purchase agreement with Fortum, the Finnish utility. "Finland is seeing huge demand for AI infrastructure right now, I've heard it called the 'Texas of Europe' at industry events," Matti Lajunen, a real-estate partner at the law firm Hannes Snellman, told CNBC. Prime minister Petteri Orpo welcomed the deal.

Ruth Porat, Alphabet's president and chief investment officer, made a promise that the regulator has now tested. "This investment underscores Google's commitment to grow our presence responsibly, pairing the expansion of our technical infrastructure with new energy capacity, grid enhancements, and energy affordability initiatives," she said. Building data centres is a race for power connections and permits, and developers can save time by preparing the ground before every approval is in. Finland's regulator has now told one developer to stop clearing ground until its environmental assessment is finished. For the other developers now looking at Finland, the request suggests that this step cannot be skipped.