Cox backs Box Elder County data center proposal, in part, due to national security factors

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Gov. Spencer Cox supports a controversial data center and power plant proposal in Box Elder County.
• The Stratos Project calls for a network of data centers and some 7.5 gigawatts of power-producing capacity to support the system.
• Cox views such facilities as vital to national security and views the proposed Box Elder County site as an apt location.

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox favors the controversial data center proposal in Box Elder County and views such facilities as vital to national security.

"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 in their states. We have to do this. We can't just say no and shut the doors and go home and let China win this technology race. That just can't be an option," he said Thursday.

Details of the proposal in the northern reaches of Box Elder County, dubbed the Stratos Project, publicly emerged last week, sparking questions, concerns and opposition from many. Over the long haul, the proposal calls for the creation of a network of data centers spread across some 40,000 acres of undeveloped Box Elder County land and the development of some 7.5 gigawatts of power-generating capacity, likely from natural gas-fired plants, to fuel them.

The data centers, coming amid a push in China and around the world for such facilities in part to bolster military capabilities, would be designed to support the U.S. military and defense contractors, according to project boosters.

Some critics, however, worry in particular about the water the new development would require to cool the varied facilities and the potential adverse impact to the Great Salt Lake. Foes demonstrated and crowded into a Box Elder County Commission meeting on the topic last Monday, but Cox downplayed such concerns amid technological advances.

"Unfortunately, there's a lot of really bad information out there about data centers. People are operating off of models and technologies that have changed drastically over the past few years, especially when it comes to water usage," he said. Misconceptions persist, he lamented, and "everybody just believes it now, that data centers use all the water and destroy everything around them, and that's just not true."

Canadian businessman Kevin O'Leary and a business he leads, O'Leary Digital, are the moving forces behind the project. Cox and other Utah officials have had conversations with project representatives, which Cox characterized as "very positive," and the Utah Military Installation Development Authority, or MIDA, threw its support behind the project late last week. The authority is a state entity that promotes economic development and military initiatives.

Now, the Box Elder County Commission must approve an interlocal agreement with the Utah Military Installation Development Authority for the project and a resolution of support, allowing Stratos to move forward. The officials tabled action at Monday's meeting, miffed they hadn't been kept in the loop on the plans and wanted more time to consider them, and are to reconsider the matter at a meeting next Monday.

Cox said data centers have to be built "in the right places and in the right way" and that it's important to debate their potential impact. But he noted that Utah already has such facilities and said the rural Box Elder County site — actually three separate expanses of land — would be an apt location.

The land is "built for something like this," he said, noting the natural gas pipeline running through the area, which would supply the proposed power-producing plants. "It's not next to somebody's house where people are going to get angry because it's in their neighborhood. ... If you can't put this here, then we can't put them anywhere."

The water the development would use would not be taken away from the Great Salt Lake, he said, but rather would be a reallocation of water rights currently earmarked for other uses. The project developers, he went on, would have to abide by state air standards.

Another sore point for some is what they view as the rush to get the project approved and the limited release of public information, at least until late last week. Cox pushed back against those concerns, voiced even by Box Elder County commissioners, and lamented what he characterized as a tendency in the country to overly draw out deliberation.

"I'm so tired of our country taking years to get stuff done. It's the dumbest thing ever. We think that taking time makes things better or safer. It absolutely does not," he said. "You get a chance to give your feedback, and then decisions get made. That's how we have to do stuff in this in this country and in this state."

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Tim Vandenack

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Tim Vandenack covers immigration, multicultural issues and Northern Utah for KSL. He worked several years for the Standard-Examiner in Ogden and has lived and reported in Mexico, Chile and along the U.S.-Mexico border.