It's expected to consume 7.5-9 gigawatts of electricity per year, which is more than twice the yearly energy expenditure of the entire state. When completed, it will be the largest datacenter in the world.
The project was fasttracked through MIDA, which basically means the developers didn't have to do any environmental impact studies whatsoever. The Salt Lake Valley already has some of the worst air pollution in the country and the project will add an extra 50% emissions yearly (I can't even fathom how bad this would look. We have weeklong stretches during the winter where it looks like fucking Blade Runner 2049 outside all day). The site is located directly north of the Great Salt Lake, which has been slowly shrinking for decades and releasing toxic clouds of arsenic dust into the air because of Utah's horrible water management. Kevin O'Leary, the charlatan that he is, claims that the project won't affect the water supply or energy rates (no evidence for this obviously).
Idk man, you hear about this stuff all the time but it really hits harder when it happens close to home. I am so sick and tired of our country being raped by financial interests for a technology that objectively makes the world a worse place to live in by every metric. I just can't fathom the incentive structure we have built for ourselves where stuff like this is getting fasttracked through government without any regulations or taxes while the cost of living steadily increases and ordinary people are locked out of homeownership.
And for what? So we can live in a post-truth, post-literate society? So that Palantir can harvest and sell my data more effectively? So all art and culture can be subsumed into the satanic technocapital regurgitation machine? So that we can reduce a vast majority of the workforce to the status of cattle? I mean, really, can you imagine what could be achieved if these funds were instead redirected to build affordable housing for young families?
Sad state of affairs all around. Fuck dude. I hate rich people. I hate businessmen and smarmy governers. Kevin O Leary is the worst guy alive. Sorry for the long rant but I hate this gay ass state