Box Elder County official faced death threats amid contentious data center debate, defends action

Box Elder County Commissioner Lee Perry, along with two other commissioners, approved resolutions to advance a controversial data center project, known as the Stratos Project Area, despite intense public opposition. Perry revealed he and the other commissioners, Boyd Bingham and Tyler Vincent, received death threats and faced false accusations amidst the contentious debate. Opponents, who protested at a meeting in Tremonton with an audience of around 500, raised significant concerns about the project's potential environmental impacts, including water availability and its effect on the Great Salt Lake's already low levels, as well as air quality and traffic. Commissioner Perry defended the board's decision, emphasizing that the county's authority is limited, particularly since the 40,000-acre project site involves private, unzoned property with purchasable water rights. He stated that environmental oversight primarily falls to state officials, such as the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The approved agreement allows the Utah Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA) to collaborate with businessman Kevin O'Leary and O'Leary Digital on the project, which includes plans for up to 9 gigawatts of power generation. Project boosters argue that developers will use less water than current agricultural operations and that the data centers are crucial for national security, bolstering U.S. military AI and cloud computing capabilities, in addition to creating up to 2,000 permanent jobs. O'Leary also claimed that a majority of the protestors were from outside Utah and were potentially paid.