Why Utah residents are protesting a massive AI data center project backed by Kevin O’Leary
New York (CNN) — A group of rural Utah residents wants a chance to vote in November to oppose a massive AI data center development — the latest example of Americans resisting new data center projects over fears they’ll disrupt the environment and their communities.
The Utah project was approved by Box Elder County commissioners on Monday, despite protests from community members. Developers hope to begin early work on the site in the fall.
Backers of the data center, including Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary, say that the project will boost the local economy and that increasing America’s computing and energy production capacity is crucial for national security. But residents are calling for more time and more information to evaluate its impact on the already fragile local ecosystem.
The conflict is, in some ways, a microcosm of the larger AI debate. While wealthy builders make lofty promises about the technology’s benefits, many individuals worry about the consequences of the race to build a world-changing technology they may not want and have little say in.
“I love what technology can give us, but Big Tech has shown us that they are not accountable,” said Caroline Gleich, an environmental advocate and resident of nearby Park City, Utah. “It’s very concerning and difficult to be a proponent of this, with the amount of land, energy and the impacts to our communities, without guardrails, accountability and transparency.”
A group of Box Elder voters this week applied to add a referendum to the local ballot in November to overturn the county commission’s approval of the project, County Clerk Marla Young confirmed to CNN. The application, earlier reported by the Salt Lake Tribune, is now undergoing legal review and would need more than 5,000 signatures for the referendum to appear on the ballot.
Similar protests are occurring around the country, with some communities seeking to ban data centers. Developers are now scrambling to address those public concerns, fearing that a slowdown in progress could dent America’s competitiveness in AI.
“The potential of what we’re creating is so important for defense, for the economy,” O’Leary told CNN on Friday. “It should be, for everybody, a mission. We can’t let the Chinese beat us.”
Stratos Data Center Project
While development of the “Stratos Project” is expected to take place in phases over several years, the plan is to construct a 9-gigawatt AI data center and a natural gas plant to power it, as well as other potential facilities on the site.
The facilities will be built on a planned 40,000-acre campus on unincorporated land in northwest Utah dominated by ranching, farming and picturesque open space. Sitting just north of the already shrinking Great Salt Lake, the area is also a sanctuary for migratory birds. The county’s population is just over 65,000.
The project area comprises privately owned land — the owners of which have signed onto the project — as well as military and state-owned land, according to documents released by local officials. The project is backed by Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority, created by the Utah legislature to develop land in the state to support defense-related infrastructure.
Building a plant to power the data center is intended to ensure the project won’t strain the local grid and hike electricity costs for nearby residents, as has happened in other areas with AI data centers, O’Leary said.
He added that the facility would look to serve clients doing work on behalf of national defense, like the US government or tech firm contractors. The project is expected to support around 10,000 jobs in the construction phase and 2,000 permanent positions and provide tax revenue to the state and county, O’Leary said.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox, who has supported the project, said in a press conference last week that data centers are “important” but “not the No. 1 source of economic development for our state.” But he reiterated that their development is a national security priority.
“We have an obligation, I think every state has an obligation when it comes to this space, to allow for these types of data centers to be built,” he said.
Developers, who have already invested around $20 million, will seek letters of intent from potential data center tenants in the coming weeks. They’ll then pursue additional investment for the project, which could ultimately cost more than $100 billion, O’Leary said. The group hopes to have the first gigawatt of data center capacity operational within two years.
‘Will the jobs be worth the cost?’
For Utahns, the promised economic benefit is just one part of the calculus.
“The question is: Will the jobs be worth the cost?” said Robert Davies, a Utah State University physics professor and expert in environmental change. “One needs to think about, ‘What kind of community do I want my children and grandchildren in 30 years from now, 50 years from now?’ Because this thing, as described and running it for 30 years, will utterly transform this valley.”
Gleich also noted that the promise of jobs raises questions when tech leaders frequently warn that AI technology will displace human workers.
Some residents are concerned that the heat and emissions created by a 9-gigawatt data center — more than double the energy the entire state of Utah uses in a year — and a power plant could exacerbate the impacts of climate change in the area. And they worry that the water needed to cool the facilities could further drain the Great Salt Lake, leading to toxic dust that harms the health of people in the surrounding areas, including Gleich’s Park City.
“We keep hearing over and over again that we need to pray for rain,” because of the destruction of the Great Salt Lake, said Sarah Inskeep-Young, who lives in Salt Lake City and has family in Box Elder County. “And now this is coming. What does that mean to the whole state?”
Developers of the project say they will invest in new technologies to reduce the facility’s water usage and make it more power efficient, and that it will comply with federal and state environmental regulations.
O’Leary called worries about draining the lake “ridiculous” and said that as “a graduate of environmental studies, I know what’s on their mind, what they’re concerned about.”
But community members want to see independent studies.
“Let’s do an environmental impact study and let’s publish it transparently,” Gleich said. “Let’s get some things in writing, and let’s give the community some time to review them and give experts some time to review them.”
Inskeep-Young added: “What concerns me is the scale of the project compared to the amount of transparent public review.”
Protecting Utahns’ ‘birthright treasure’
The Box Elder County Commission unanimously voted to advance the project at a public meeting on Monday. The commission says it reviewed more than 2,500 public comments ahead of the decision.
But some residents say they feel the process was rushed and that they had little time to evaluate the project ahead of the meeting. Hundreds filed into Box Elder County fairgrounds to attend the Monday meeting — some to protest, some hoping for more details. Signs read: “Don’t sell us out” and “Streams over streaming.”
Davies, who was in attendance, said the “overwhelming sentiment was: we don’t have enough information.” (O’Leary claimed that paid protestors were bussed in for the event, something Davies and other community members have strongly disputed.)
“There was certainly plenty of shouting and even some profanity,” Davies said. “But you know what? One can understand it. This has the potential for massive impact to these communities and to … what we Utahns consider our birthright treasure, which is our landscapes.”
The meeting got so rowdy that one commissioner told the audience to “grow up,” and commissioners then retreated to a private room. Audience members watched as the approval was given via livestream to a screen in front of the room.
Explaining the decision, Box Elder County Commissioner Lee Perry passed the buck: “Our vote today is not a vote or against the data center — our vote is about personal property rights.”
The-CNN-Wire
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