Overview
- Box Elder County’s commission, which tabled action Monday after a packed and tense meeting, set a follow-up session to reconsider the plan.
- The proposal, led by Kevin O’Leary’s O’Leary Digital with partner West GenCo and the state Military Installation Development Authority, places a hyperscale data campus on remote land tied to Utah defense sites.
- Developers say full buildout needs about 7.5 gigawatts of on-site generation from natural gas plants fed by the Ruby Pipeline, with no draw from Utah’s grid and possible excess sent back.
- Backers project about 2,000 permanent jobs, 4,000 construction jobs, and county revenue starting near $30 million and rising above $100 million, aided by an energy-use tax cut from 6% to 0.5%.
- Residents warn about water strain and harm to the Great Salt Lake, while project representatives cite closed-loop and air-cooling to curb use and note that no traffic or environmental impact studies are complete.