Opinion
One Utah County's Fight Over a $100 Billion Data Center — and What it Means for All of Us.
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By Michael Posner
As seen in: Forbes
Imagine a construction project three times the size of Manhattan, powered entirely by natural gas, with no renewable energy commitments. Imagine it raising local nighttime temperatures by as much as 28 degrees. Imagine the surrounding ranchland potentially becoming, in the words of a local ecology professor, “comparable to the Sahara Desert.” Now imagine that when hundreds of residents showed up to protest, a county commissioner told them to “grow up”—and approved the project anyway.
Welcome to the Stratos Project in Box Elder, Utah. Welcome to the AI data center boom.
Across America, communities are pushing back against AI data centers—over noise, water use, energy demands, and a development pace that often leaves residents with little say. Box Elder is all of that, multiplied to a scale that strains credulity.
Read the full Forbes article.
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Michael Posner is the Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics and Finance, Professor of Business and Society and Director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.