Overview
- County commissioners unanimously approved two required resolutions that let the O’Leary Digital proposal advance after a raucous public meeting attended by hundreds of protesters.
- Regulatory hurdles remain as formal protests have been filed with Utah state engineers and environmental litigation is being weighed by opponents.
- The plan covers roughly 40,000 acres and targets about 9 gigawatts of on-site power, reported as likely natural gas, which critics say risks draining groundwater and worsening the Great Salt Lake crisis.
- Backers frame the project as critical infrastructure for U.S. military AI and cloud computing and they cite economic gains such as an estimated 2,000 permanent jobs and prior support from a state military development authority.
- Kevin O’Leary says the design will pair water and air cooling and could add wind, solar, and batteries, while local officials say the project would use privately owned, non-drinkable water rights rather than municipal supplies.