Utah has given the green light to what might be called a 'slightly ambitious' datacenter project, and by 'slightly ambitious,' we mean it will cover more than 40,000 acres - an area twice the size of Manhattan - and require about 9GW of power, which is more electricity than the entire state currently uses. The Stratos AI datacenter, spread across three sites in Box Elder County, has provoked a furious backlash from locals who are not exactly thrilled about their stressed water supplies and the prospect of their Great Salt Lake ecosystem being put on life support.
Environmentalists, including the Sierra Club's Utah chapter director Franque Bains, have called the approval 'irresponsible and dangerous,' noting that the lake is already shrinking due to agricultural water diversion and climate change, putting Salt Lake City at risk of toxic dust clouds from the drying lake bed. But hey, at least we'll have plenty of compute power for AI, right?
The project is backed by Kevin O'Leary - yes, the Shark Tank guy who recently played a villainous tycoon in a movie - who claims it will deliver thousands of jobs and help the US compete with China in AI. 'We’re not gonna drain the Great Salt Lake. That’s ridiculous,' O’Leary posted on X, presumably while avoiding eye contact with the lake. He also assured Fox News that the facility's gas-fired power generation - which is definitely not clean, despite his claims - won't raise residents' energy bills because they'll build 'power from scratch.'
Critics, however, point out that the project could raise Utah's planet-heating pollution by about 50% and, according to physics professor Rob Davies, increase local nighttime temperatures by up to 12°F due to the waste heat from industrial-scale fans. 'This facility imposes substantial drying on a watershed and ecosystem already in active collapse,' Davies said, which is about as ringing an endorsement as a wet paper towel.
Nearly 4,000 people have objected, leading to contentious public meetings that left Box Elder County Commissioner Lee Perry feeling 'physically sick' amid alleged death threats. O'Leary has countered that most protesters are paid out-of-state agitators being bused in - a claim opponents reject. A group called the Box Elder Accountability Referendum has filed for a referendum to reverse the approval, needing 5,422 signatures in 45 days to put the matter to a vote in November.
In a twist that surprises no one, developers withdrew their application to divert 1,900 acre-feet of water from ranching to the project, but plan to reapply - a move opponents say is designed to skirt public objections and force each complainer to pay $15 to file new complaints. 'This has all the hallmarks of an out-of-state megaproject with little to no concern for the local community,' said Brigham Young University ecologist Ben Abbott.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox, who last year asked residents to pray and fast for drought relief, now says the project must not harm the Great Salt Lake or raise power bills and will be built in phases. 'Industry is our state’s motto,' Cox noted, apparently forgetting that another state motto might be 'Please don't destroy our shrinking lake.'