Hundreds gather at Capitol to rally against Box Elder data center proposal

SALT LAKE CITY — Several hundred opponents of the Box Elder County data center proposal rallied at the state Capitol Thursday, reiterating their environmental concerns and pressing officials to take a slower, more deliberative approach in considering the project.

Speakers also variously called for an end to the state body that has been promoting the initiative, Utah's Military Installation Development Authority, or MIDA, and said project proponents' contentions that national security is at stake, meant to bolster the urgency of the plans, are overblown.

"We are being lied to again by our leaders about the phony national imperative of allowing Shark Tank's Mr. Wonderful to come lay waste to Utah," said Brian Moench of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, an environmental group. Canadian businessman Kevin O'Leary, a judge known as Mr. Wonderful on the business-themed reality television show "Shark Tank," is the main moving force behind the project through his business, O'Leary Digital.

Moench rebuffed the notion that the United States "must reach the top of the Mount Everest of (artificial intelligence) supremacy first or China will destroy us" and spoke scornfully of the proliferation of data centers. Backers of the Box Elder County plans say the proposed data center would bolster the U.S. military's access to artificial intelligence and cloud computing capabilities, promoting national security amid parallel efforts in China to build data centers.

"The Box Elder Death Star is only the largest of 21 AI data centers at various stages of approval in this state," Moench said. "We will be overwhelmed by data centers and all their consequences if citizens don't rise up to stop this."

Moench called for an end to Utah's Military Installation Development Authority, as did Allison Barton of Great Salt Lake Audubon. The authority promotes economic development initiatives in Utah tied to the military and the Military Installation Development Authority board approved the framework for the O'Leary Digital proposal in late April.

"MIDA, by approving it so quickly, cannot be trusted to manage the federal or state land in its hands properly. It absolutely must be repealed," Barton said. "The board members are appointed, not elected. With the majority serving in public office, they stand to profit while making consequential decisions for us Utahns."

Box Elder County commissioners on May 4 signed off on the proposal following the Military Installation Development Authority action, allowing the project to proceed, though the two resolutions the county officials approved are the focus of possible repeal challenges by foes. The data center plans also call for development of up to 9 gigawatts of power-generating capacity to serve the facility, another point of concern for critics.

Military Installation Development Authority spokeswoman Kristin Kenney Williams, for her part, said the governmental entity "operates with integrity and transparency" in working with the public and private sectors.

The entity oversees seven project areas "transparently established through legislative action to support Utah's economic growth and defense-related infrastructure," she said when reached later Thursday. Moreover, there are varied means of public involvement with the authority — at meetings of the body's board and design review committee, for instance — while the organization's documents are posted online and available for public review.

'No data center please'

The stated reason for Thursday's demonstration, attended by perhaps 400 or 500 people, was to deliver an open letter to Gov. Spencer Cox outlining the foes' opposition to the data center plans. After various speakers addressed the group from the south steps of the Capitol in Salt Lake City, they marched inside the building to deliver the letter, signed by more than 7,500 people.

They chanted and sang outside Cox's office, but weren't allowed entry. Ultimately, group representatives handed the letter to the staffer of the governor, enclosed in a manila envelope reading, "Dear Gov. Cox: No data center please" on the outside.

Among other things, the letter calls on Cox, House Speaker Mike Schultz and Senate President Stuart Adams to order independent water and fiscal studies into the project and to permit "a genuine public comment period" before letting the project proceed.

It reiterates project opponents' worries about the water the project would consume and the potential impact on the drying Great Salt Lake. It also maintains that the public was given minimal opportunity to comment and questions the urgency of pushing the project forward quickly.

"You and President Adams have the authority to require MIDA (to) pause this process pending independent review. We are asking you to use it," the letter reads. "There is no obligation to approve this project without independent review. No statute requires Utah to approve a 9-gigawatt data center in three weeks with no water study and no public comment."

The governor's office didn't immediately respond to a query seeking comment. Paul Palandjian, co-founder and CEO of O'Leary Digital, pointed a finger at the protesters themselves, echoing criticism levied by O'Leary in some of his comments to national media outlets.

"These are not organic protests. They ignore the facts of the project," Palandjian said in a message to KSL.

Project proponents have said the modern technology to be used requires minimal water and they have stressed the importance of the data centers to national security. Boosters have also touted the jobs the project would create and the economic development they say it would spur.

Apart from Thursday's protest, hundreds gathered at the May 4 Box Elder County Commission meeting to voice opposition to the plans. Many organizations have also taken to social media, while some Box Elder County residents are seeking a ballot referendum on the May 4 resolutions county commissioners approved.

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