I love Utah politics

[Northwestcoug]

Who among us in our early twenties didn't denigrate women and the majority religion in a state? I'm sure he has moved on from such childish behavior and is ready to fight for Utahns.

[frank ryan]

This will be tough to overcome. Kind of impressive how he insulted and grossed out pretty much everyone.

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That is someone I won't be voting for

[YOhio]

Who among us in our early twenties didn't denigrate women and the majority religion in a state? I'm sure he has moved on from such childish behavior and is ready to fight for Utahns.

This may be me being overly cynical or sensitive, but I think he probably would have been okay if it were just the comments about the church. It's not necessarily a mainstream belief of the left to think the church is bigoted, but I don't think it's an extremist position either. Particularly in liberal areas of SLC.

[MartyFunkhouser]

This may be me being overly cynical or sensitive, but I think he probably would have been okay if it were just the comments about the church. It's not necessarily a mainstream belief of the left to think the church is bigoted, but I don't think it's an extremist position either. Particularly in liberal areas of SLC.

And who hasn't taken a shit in a church parking lot and showed pornography to missionaries?

[YOhio]

And who hasn't taken a shit in a church parking lot and showed pornography to missionaries?

I said it was just the comments! But I feel like the things you mentioned would also give him cred on the right.

[Shaka]

I'm sure he has moved on from such childish behavior and is ready to fight for Utahns.

He hasn't.

Nate is a dweeb

[Northwestcoug]

The first paragraph describing a plan to build a hyperscale data center in Box Elder County raises an eyebrow:

Celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary plans to build a massive hyperscale data center project in Box Elder County — which state boosters say will fund modern buildings at Hill Air Force Base while generating all of its own power, cleaning the water it uses so it can be sent to the Great Salt Lake and creating 2,000 high-paying jobs in the rural area.

It goes on with the standard slashing of taxes to lure the project and other economics that are just too good to pass up by not laying out the red carpet. Mr. Wonderful's pitch comes straight out of his Shark Tank Shtick. And then another raised eyebrow:

Its first phase is expected to require about 3 gigawatts of power — nearly matching Utah’s average statewide electricity use of roughly 4 gigawatts, he noted. At full buildout, Morris said, the campus would reach 9 gigawatts, more than double the state’s current total energy consumption...

Morris said the data centers will use new cooling technology that cleans and recycles water for reuse in the system, before returning it to an aquifer that feeds into the Great Salt Lake. He said the project will lose less water than what’s required for ranching.

“Water usage is minimal,” he told Box Elder County commissioners Wednesday, adding, “the water that they’re buying is part of getting the land.”

“It’s not the evaporative cooling of old days. It’s circulated water that’s reused,” he said. “The particular water has brine in it, so they’re going to clean the water, use it for the cooling, and then it will go back down into the aquifer and feed into the Great Salt Lake. So they think it’ll be a net gain to the Great Salt Lake"

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2026/04/...center-may-be/

I suppose all of it could be true and it turns out to be a win win for Utah. But man, highly raised eyebrows...

[Green Monstah]

If only we had an expert on water in Utah on this message board…

[BigFatMeanie]

I’m not an expert in water but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night and know a little bit about data centers. It is true that most new data centers no longer use evaporative cooling, which really sucks water, but instead use various combinations of refrigerants and can and due process the water before returning it. But the newer tech is not 100% recovery though - not even close.

I believe the NSA data center at camp Williams was the last evaporatively cooled data center built in Utah, but I’m only 65% on that. There have been several built in western salt lake county that use the newer tech.

Also, if you are any kind of environmentalist (or climate change catastrophist) at all, then you should get on board the nuclear bandwagon. Nuclear is the most energy dense viable power source at the moment with the least environmental impact; even including Fukushima, Chernobyl, 3 Mile Island and all other nuclear accidents.

[Northwestcoug]

That’s interesting BFM, thanks.

yeah their water projections seem very optimistic. It almost sounds like they’re roping in the great salt lake to woo over people. No water loss and we’re returning it to the lake? Sign me up!

[Jeff Lebowski]

Also, if you are any kind of environmentalist (or climate change catastrophist) at all, then you should get on board the nuclear bandwagon. Nuclear is the most energy dense viable power source at the moment with the least environmental impact; even including Fukushima, Chernobyl, 3 Mile Island and all other nuclear accidents.

Preach, brother.

[MartyFunkhouser]

Preach, brother.

The only way we are going to have clean energy and a stable grid is nuclear becoming the primary source of energy generation. Renewables are a nice supplement, but they cannot and will never be a primary source. We need to invest in nuclear and should have done it long ago.

[Northwestcoug]

One thing I didn’t get from the article is the feasibility of the power needs. Like is the natural gas pipeline even sufficient enough to deliver more energy that what the whole of Utah currently uses?

[Moliere]

One thing I didn’t get from the article is the feasibility of the power needs. Like is the natural gas pipeline even sufficient enough to deliver more energy that what the whole of Utah currently uses?

Yes, very likely. The Northwest Pipeline, which is owned by Williams could easily provide enough gas to power a plant to produce that much power. I’m sure it would result in higher rates for customers that receive gas from that pipeline though

[Jeff Lebowski]

Man, the politics in Utah surrounding this data center in Box Elder county have been bonkers. We have a friendly neighborhood email group that is usually dedicated to people getting rid of old stuff or sharing the time of an elementary school production of some sort. But a woman in our neighborhood went on a rant about the data center and encouraged everybody to write letters to oppose it, and she listed all kinds of claims about the water and other facts associated that she pulled out of thin air. Then another guy calmly rebutted each of the issues she raised. And then another woman angrily jumped in. But that is nothing compared to the social media chaos that is going on. Just the claims made about the water alone are absurd. Everyone is suddenly an expert now but they are just making things up and repeating any nonsense that confirms their biases.