Utah Senate president defends donations as group calls for ethics investigation

Utah Senate President Stuart Adams is facing scrutiny over donations made to his Adams Leadership PAC, which a progressive group named Better Utah suggests may be tied to a controversial vote approving a proposed data center in Box Elder County. The donations were reported a week after Adams and other members of the Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA) board voted on the project. Adams, however, maintains that campaign contributions are separate from policy decisions and denies any connection between the donations and the data center approval. Elizabeth Hutchings, a spokeswoman for Better Utah, described the PAC donations as "a little icky" and called for a full ethics investigation, though the group has not yet filed a formal complaint, opting instead for an online petition drive. Separately, a water rights change application for the data center project, which sought to transfer 1,900 acre-feet of water from agricultural to industrial use, was withdrawn. Joel Ferry, director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, stated that the application is expected to be resubmitted and insisted that the water transfer would have "zero" net impact on the Great Salt Lake. Ferry also emphasized that the project requires separate state permits for both water and air quality, indicating an ongoing approval process where denial is still a possibility based on the merits of the applications.