Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary wants to build a massive $100 billion data center in rural Utah. Residents are revolting |
Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary wants to build a massive $100 billion data center in rural Utah. Residents are revolting
Local residents are revolting against a $100 billion Utah data center project backed by Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary that would use more electricity than the entire state does in a year.
Commissioners in Box Elder County—a rural county of just under 60,000 residents in the northwest corner of Utah—unanimously voted to advance the 9-gigawatt project last week, even as a crowd of people gathered at the county fairgrounds to protest and demand more information.
Residents are concerned, among other things, about the facility’s 40,000-acre footprint—roughly the size of Washington, D.C.
The meeting grew unruly and one commissioner told the audience to “grow up” before the elected officials went to a private room to approve the project while attendees watched on a livestream, CNN reported.
A spokesperson for Box Elder County did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment. A spokesperson for O’Leary did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Following the vote, a small group of residents filed an application seeking to put a referendum on the ballot to stop the project, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. The Box Elder........