Utah Residents Sue Officials Over Kevin O'Leary Data Center Plan (nbcnews.com) 25
Utah residents and a progressive nonprofit are suing officials over Kevin O'Leary's planned Stratos Project AI data center, arguing that the special authority overseeing it gives unelected officials too much control over land use, taxation, public health, and local governance. The lawsuit comes as O'Leary has agreed to shrink the proposed 40,000-acre project by 75% amid mounting political and community pushback. NBC News reports: The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Utah's 3rd District Court by the Alliance for a Better Utah and the group of anonymous residents. The plaintiffs hope to challenge the constitutionality of the Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA) -- a special entity that oversees the data center's proposal -- and its approval of the project, a spokesperson for the nonprofit said. Attorney David Irvine, who is representing the plaintiffs, alleges that MIDA is exercising powers as an unelected body that "the Utah Constitution never authorized." "Under the Stratos plan, it would hold permanent, irrevocable control over public health, safety, taxation, and land use across tens of thousands of acres of Box Elder County, with no voter recourse," he said in a statement.
The lawsuit alleges that allowing MIDA to oversee the data center's development "irrevocably" cuts off Box Elder County citizens' rights by not allowing sufficient public input in the project. "The Stratos Project Area Plan, and actions taken by MIDA and the Commission to enact the same, puts lawmaking power respecting questions of public health, safety, welfare, morals, taxation, zoning, land use, and the like, in relation to a significant swath of county territory in a non-elected MIDA Board," the complaint reads.
In addition to MIDA and the Box Elder County Commission, the lawsuit names Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams and state Sen. Jerry Stevenson, who also serve as MIDA board members. Irvine said Adams and Stevenson's presence on the MIDA board as active legislators "appears to violate the prohibition on holding more than one office of public trust simultaneously," and claimed this should render the data center's approval "null and void."
The lawsuit alleges that allowing MIDA to oversee the data center's development "irrevocably" cuts off Box Elder County citizens' rights by not allowing sufficient public input in the project. "The Stratos Project Area Plan, and actions taken by MIDA and the Commission to enact the same, puts lawmaking power respecting questions of public health, safety, welfare, morals, taxation, zoning, land use, and the like, in relation to a significant swath of county territory in a non-elected MIDA Board," the complaint reads.
In addition to MIDA and the Box Elder County Commission, the lawsuit names Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams and state Sen. Jerry Stevenson, who also serve as MIDA board members. Irvine said Adams and Stevenson's presence on the MIDA board as active legislators "appears to violate the prohibition on holding more than one office of public trust simultaneously," and claimed this should render the data center's approval "null and void."
It was only a matter of time. (Score:5, Interesting)
This is going on in my home county with all the official stuff going on in my hometown. My position on it is the same. The design is pretty great, but the odds of the finished product matching the design aren't. I still have zero faith in Kevin. There's nothing short-term that will change that. Trust has to be earned.
Not too unlike the “inland Port Commission&r (Score:5, Insightful)
Utah government is the worst. And a glaring example of corruption through single party rule because they successfully convinced a small majority the opposition is evil. And as such they don’t deserve a seat a the table.
That saddest part is that it is completely within the power of Utahan to change their government. But they have beeen so successfully brainwashed, they just can’t bring themselves to do it.
I have lived in supermajority red state, a super majority blue state, and now live in purple state. It may take longer to get somethings done here, but the resulting laws and legislations is almost always better when policy is debated out in the open instead of negotiated in back rooms and presented as done deal for an up or down vote. The corruption is far less palpable.
Re:Not too unlike the “inland Port Commissio (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally, I think that the datacenter drama is way overblown. It’s clear that some places don’t have the electrical/water intrastructure to support them. Others are fine. I live in Ohio. We have plenty of electricity and our aquifers replenish so fast from the great lakes that we basically have infinite water. As far as land goes, we have oh-my-god sooooooo much open land. A few square miles here and there for a data center is basically nothing. The local ohio anti-datacenter movement is the dumbest, most histrionic thing ever.
An arid county in Utah? Ok, maybe datacenters are a bad idea. Let the local places figure it out. But this whole thing is the new NIMBY obsession.
Re: (Score:3)
Personally, I think that the datacenter drama is way overblown... A few square miles here and there for a data center is basically nothing. The local ohio anti-datacenter movement is the dumbest, most histrionic thing ever.
Whether the reaction to any given site is "dumb" or "histrionic" is determined by factors that you haven't mentioned. If a site is too close to places inhabited or frequented by humans, the sonic and infrasonic energy emitted can have negative health consequences and seriously degrade quality of life.
For a quick summary of this problem, see Tom's Hardware: https://www.tomshardware.com/t... [tomshardware.com] . For an in-depth look, I recommend Benn Jordan's YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
For a more rigorous
Re: (Score:2)
The NIMBY/YIMBT thing is weird to me since it applies a broad semi-permanent label on what should just be a case by case basis. If someone wanted to build a McDonalds on my block, you can bet I would be full NIMBY. My neighbors want to add a garage or another floor to their house...call me a YIMBY. Name calling aside, the folks that live in these communities should be the ones to decide what gets built in their neighborhood, contingent on property holders rights not being trampled. Like if there is a
Re:Not too unlike the “inland Port Commissio (Score:1)
Utah government is the worst
Corrupt governments around the world are saying "hold my beer."
Re: (Score:2)
Corporate "good" is not local public good. (Score:5, Insightful)
Data centers squander increasingly valuable common resources and do not need to be located where they burden local communities or aquifers.
AI data centers are not a public good. NIMBY in this is legitimate.
Sacrificing resources to serve corporate masters is silly while general opposition is logical and wise.
Epstein class investors can put data centers distant from anything that matters. When the hardware then later the structures go obsolete that distance keeps them where they can (as many will be) left basically abandoned with nil community impact.
Reasons do not exist for the public to support the rich getting richer off community water supplies. Reasons do not exist to trust the Epstein class to be good stewards.
Democracy includes the right to oppose social parasites for any legal reason. There are no personal negative consequences for opposing AI data centers as fraud, waste and abuse they are. Just say no.
There are plenty of places to put them where they aren't serious public burdens. The US isn't short of unoccupied land (see night time satellite images if in doubt).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Box Elder County is 100% right here. Just look at how they're being treated by their elected officials, who are lying saying none of the protestors even live there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
In an earlier time period, these elected offices would be removed from their homes and their families would be made
Re: (Score:1)
Epstein class investors can put data centers distant from anything that matters.
On the contrary, electricity matters and they should be close to a source of power.
Why close? So they don't need to run new transmission lines to connect to the grid.
Fortunately for AI data center owners, the sun is close. If you have enough additional contiguous land you can build a solar + battery plant to meet most of your needs. If you can tolerate downtime when the batteries are drained, you won't need high-power transmission lines at all.
What's that? You didn't buy enough real estate for your AI se
Update: It looks like they are planning for power (Score:1)
According to this promotional web site [midaut.org] it looks like they are planning to self-power.
Re: (Score:2)
Now, if you want to argue that farmland is better used for agriculture than data centers or solar farms, that's reasonable. But water is not actually an issue here.
Sounds great! (Score:3)
MIDA (Score:5, Insightful)
I was curious about MIDA and WTF "Stratos" was and they have a website that list their stated goals (numbers added for reference): https://www.midaut.org/stratos [midaut.org]
1 Strengthen military readiness and national security by supporting energy resilience, compute power, and data storage for defense operations.
2 Advance major energy and technology investment in Northern Utah through the development of a large-scale data and energy campus.
3 Position Utah as a leader in next-generation infrastructure for artificial intelligence, cloud computing, secure data systems, and mission-critical national defense operations.
4 Support reliable, independent energy generation by including dedicated on-site power generation designed to meet the campus’s needs without placing additional demand on the existing electrical grid.
5 Generate long-term economic opportunity for Box Elder County through construction jobs, permanent careers, local hiring, and significant annual revenues.
6 Fund public infrastructure and municipal services without creating a burden on County taxpayers.
7 Support Hill Air Force Base and the Utah National Guard by generating revenues that can help fund critical infrastructure projects tied to military readiness.
Goal #3 is in conflict with #4, #5, #6, and #7.
* A data center consumes an obscene amount of power. Goal #4 is failed.
* A data center will not generate long-term economic opportunity. Goal #5 is failed.
* A data center will drive up energy prices. Goal #6 is failed.
* A data center will not generate much revenue. Goal #7 is failed.
About 79% of these residence voted Republican in the last two elections [wikipedia.org], so I'm not really surprised that they have been grifted under the guise of patriotism.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
How is it that you seem to both see and ignore the part where they're building their own power supply?
That's a listed "goal", not something they have done. Do you have information claiming they have built their own power generation systems?
Re: (Score:2)
"a progressive nonprofit" and a (Score:2)
This will all blow over, when/if the right people receive their $$$$. It is pay up or drop the project.
When nonprofit lawyers are involved it is usually a shake down. That is how today's NGO's and nonprofits work.
Re: (Score:2)
Military Installation Development Authority? (Score:2)
Seems odd that a Military Installation Development Authority would be authorizing data centers, but here's an article from the Salt Lake City Tribune: https://www.sltrib.com/news/po... [sltrib.com]
(Article is paywalled, but the first few paragraphs, which are free, gives some background).
So, nine people and a lawyer? (Score:2)
So, nine people and a lawyer.