Utah Gov. Spencer Cox says the Stratos Project, a planned 40,000-acre data center in northern Utah, will “never” run solely on natural gas. The move lands amid a months-long backlash over pollution, water needs, and the state process behind the project backed
For weeks, people in Utah have watched the Stratos Project move from proposal to pressure point. The plan—an immense data center campus in a remote valley north of the Great Salt Lake—was pitched around a promise that its power would come “100 percent off the Ruby Pipeline.” Then the protests. the public digging. and the political tension finally landed in a different sentence.
Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, told a nonprofit newsroom in Utah that the project’s gas plan won’t hold.
“That’s never going to happen,” Cox said last week to The Salt Lake Tribune. “The very first phase will be natural gas, but the other phases should not be. They should be nuclear, and they should be geothermal, and solar and other technology.”
The Stratos Project is still light on details. but it has been framed by its backer. Kevin O’Leary—known for the reality show “Shark Tank” and for appearing on “Shark Tank”—as something on a world scale. O’Leary has said that at full build it will be one of the biggest data centers in the world. as large as Washington. D.C.
That claim is part of what has turned the proposal into a statewide argument. Scientists, environmental advocates, and residents have raised alarms about the impact the project could have on air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, and water supplies near the shrinking Great Salt Lake.
The controversy has been especially sharp because the electricity story has been central to the project from the start. Officials connected to the Military Installation Development Authority. or MIDA. which approved the project and created tax incentives to spur its development. have described the site as strategically chosen—because of a gas pipeline.
A MIDA official said in April that the plant powering the data complex would be powered “100 percent off the Ruby Pipeline,” selected by O’Leary, and that the remote valley north of the Great Salt Lake was chosen because a gas pipeline runs through it.
Opponents say that choice is precisely where the danger lies.
In the months leading up to Cox’s comments, water and air concerns have become the center of the dispute. A water right filed to support the data center and power plant received nearly 4,000 letters of protest this month. Opponents held a rally at Utah’s Capitol last week and delivered a letter to Cox with more than 6. 000 signatures urging him to take “binding action” to preserve the Great Salt Lake instead of issuing platitudes over social media.
On energy and climate. Utah Clean Energy analyst Logan Mitchell calculated that a 9-gigawatt natural gas power plant would produce around 35 million metric tons of carbon emissions each year. Mitchell said Utah produces 55 million metric tons annually, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, meaning the Stratos Project could raise Utah’s emissions by about 64 percent.
Mitchell added that his estimate may still be too low because it didn’t account for “any additional methane leakage” from piping and using the natural gas.
Water is also part of the fear, even though the project’s ultimate needs are still unclear. While it’s not known how much water the facility would require. the project’s developers have said they’re working to secure 13. 000 acre-feet in Hansel Valley and the surrounding area. which is mostly agricultural. Supporters say that amount would be enough water to meet the needs of more than 20,000 households in Utah.
Cox’s latest remarks land against that backdrop of escalating public pressure.
During a news conference on Wednesday announcing a geothermal partnership with the neighboring states of Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, Cox acknowledged problems with the rollout of the Stratos Project in Box Elder County.
“There’s no question, the process was not good,” Cox told reporters. “It’s something I’ve worried about for a long time with that entity that made that decision.”
His comments appeared to refer to MIDA, a development authority ostensibly meant to fund projects to support the military. But Cox noted that MIDA’s biggest developments in recent years have included a hotel at the Deer Valley luxury ski resort and a ski village.
MIDA officials and other Stratos supporters have called the data center a matter of national security.
“That was not a decision that was made by me or the Legislature,” Cox said. “In the future. those are decisions that should be made by us. so that we can do these types of things ahead of time to make sure people understand what’s actually happening out there. That did not happen, and it should happen.”.
When Cox spoke. he was also in the middle of pushing for changes to how quickly Utah and other Western states can build energy infrastructure. He was hosting the final workshop in his “Energy Superabundance” initiative as chair of the Western Governors Association. a broader push that complements his “Operation Gigawatt” goal to more than double Utah’s energy production over the next decade.
Electricity demand has held relatively steady for decades, but the rise of artificial intelligence computing and data centers is straining the electric grid, leaving Western states scrambling to add new supplies.
At the same time, public skepticism about large data centers appears to be growing—over concerns involving water use, noise, energy costs, and pollution.
“It feels like the future is here,” Cox said during his opening remarks at the workshop. “It’s coming quicker than people asked for, and there are so many amazing things that can come from that future, and some pretty awful ones as well.”
Cox has also argued for faster permitting timelines for large energy and infrastructure projects. saying environmental review processes often take too long. In April. he said. “This whole idea of being rushed — I’m so tired of our country taking years to get stuff done.” He added. “It’s the dumbest thing ever. We think that taking time makes things better or safer. It absolutely does not.”.
But as Stratos criticism has mounted, Cox has shifted to a more careful tone about the particular risks people are raising.
Last week. as he left the workshop. he said in a brief interview. “One of the things people are worried about. and rightfully so. is air quality.” He said that a yearlong permitting process applies. and that “We’re not speeding those up. Those are really important, and we want to make sure that things are done the right way.”.
O’Leary’s own messaging has also tried to address the renewable question. even as he stopped short of abandoning natural gas. Earlier this month, he suggested that renewables could help power the Stratos Project. On May 5. O’Leary posted on X that solar. wind. and batteries could supply a percentage of the power generation. saying battery technology is “10x more efficient than it was just five years ago. ” which he said makes energy costs lower.
Even with those references to other technologies, Cox’s message marks a clear break from the earlier “100 percent” natural-gas framing. And for protesters who have pushed the issue with letters. signatures. and Capitol rallies—warnings about air. emissions. and water have now collided directly with a governor who says the project’s long-term power plan can’t be gas alone.
The immediate question now isn’t whether the Stratos Project will move forward—it’s what the next phases will actually look like, and whether Utah’s process will catch up to the scale of what the state has already put into motion.
Stratos Project data center Ruby Pipeline MIDA Spencer Cox Kevin O'Leary Great Salt Lake natural gas power plant emissions methane leakage geothermal partnership Operation Gigawatt Energy Superabundance