“We pissed off a lot of people”: Giant data center plan cut 50% amid protests

“我们惹恼了很多人”：受抗议影响，巨型数据中心计划规模缩减 50%

One of the world’s biggest data center projects was designed to be nearly three times the size of Manhattan, stretching across multiple Utah sites. But intense local backlash in Box Elder County has now pushed the developer to cut the project plans in half before construction starts. 全球最大的数据中心项目之一原计划占地面积约为曼哈顿的三倍，横跨犹他州的多个地点。然而，博克斯埃尔德县（Box Elder County）当地居民的强烈抵制，迫使开发商在动工前将项目计划缩减了一半。

Residents’ top concern was the Stratos data center project draining local waters, and they were willing to pay to protect them, most especially the vulnerable Great Salt Lake. Many locals paid a $15 fee to register comments to block the transfer of 1,900 acre-feet of water from a ranch to the hyperscale data center. Other concerns include electricity bills rising and potential risks to air quality, local wildlife, and land. 居民们最担心的是 Stratos 数据中心项目会耗尽当地水源，他们甚至愿意自掏腰包来保护水资源，尤其是脆弱的大盐湖。许多当地人支付了 15 美元的费用提交评论，旨在阻止将 1,900 英亩英尺的水从牧场转移到这个超大规模数据中心。其他担忧还包括电费上涨，以及对空气质量、当地野生动物和土地的潜在风险。

Venture capitalist Kevin O’Leary, chair of O’Leary Digital and Shark Tank investor, is behind the construction of the project. He told a local ABC affiliate that he regrets not working with state officials to be more transparent about the project from the beginning. “We really screwed it up,” O’Leary said, while confirming that he “was not expecting this kind of intense blowback from the public.” 风险投资家、O’Leary Digital 董事长兼《创智赢家》（Shark Tank）投资人凯文·奥利里（Kevin O’Leary）是该项目的幕后推手。他告诉当地一家 ABC 附属电视台，他后悔没有从一开始就与州政府官员合作，提高项目的透明度。“我们确实搞砸了，”奥利里说道，同时承认他“没想到会遭到公众如此强烈的抵制”。

He claimed that he and state officials anticipated that “people would be excited” about the major local investment and “made huge mistakes” by not involving the public more in discussions, based on that “assumption.” “We pissed off a lot of people, and that’s not the way I do business,” O’Leary said. “That’s not.” 他声称，他和州政府官员曾预料到“人们会为这项重大的本地投资感到兴奋”，并基于这一“假设”，在没有让公众更多参与讨论的情况下“犯了巨大的错误”。“我们惹恼了很多人，这不是我的经营方式，”奥利里说，“绝不是。”

As Utahns moved to defend their resources and demanded more information, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, who is a Republican, sent a letter to O’Leary, asking him to cut the project’s scope by 75 percent. At an AI gala in Washington, DC, O’Leary claimed that he had “no choice” but to agree, NBC News reported. 随着犹他州民众开始捍卫自己的资源并要求获取更多信息，共和党籍的犹他州参议院议长斯图尔特·亚当斯（Stuart Adams）致信奥利里，要求他将项目规模削减 75%。据 NBC 新闻报道，奥利里在华盛顿特区举行的一次人工智能晚会上声称，他“别无选择”，只能同意。

Initially, he planned to build the project on 40,000 acres, but now he’s reduced that to about 20,000 acres. Of the remaining land, 10,000 acres will remain undeveloped, leaving about 25 percent of the initial acreage to develop the data center. O’Leary’s group characterized this as bending to the Senate president’s demands. 最初，他计划在 40,000 英亩的土地上建设该项目，但现在已将其缩减至约 20,000 英亩。在剩余的土地中，有 10,000 英亩将保持未开发状态，最终仅保留约 25% 的初始土地用于开发数据中心。奥利里的团队将此举描述为向参议院议长的要求妥协。

Moving forward, O’Leary wants to rebuild trust, he claimed. He told the ABC affiliate that he’s personally taking over all communications on the project because he didn’t “like being beaten up like this.” With him as spokesperson, residents will supposedly be better informed about permitting requests and environmental impacts, rather than relying on sources that O’Leary claimed are unreliable or bent on manipulating public opinion. 奥利里声称，展望未来，他希望重建信任。他告诉 ABC 附属电视台，他将亲自接管该项目的所有沟通工作，因为他“不喜欢被这样抨击”。由他担任发言人，居民们理应能更清楚地了解许可申请和环境影响，而不必依赖奥利里所称的那些不可靠或意图操纵舆论的来源。

“All the plans are going to be transparent,” O’Leary said, while claiming that public concerns are exaggerated. “All the design is going to be transparent. Everything we do is going to be transparent because I’m not happy with where we’re at right now.” He told the AI gala attendees that he now recognizes that “we should have answered all this stuff up front, now I got to do it after everybody’s been pissed off.” “所有的计划都将是透明的，”奥利里说，同时声称公众的担忧被夸大了。“所有的设计都将是透明的。我们所做的一切都将是透明的，因为我对目前的处境并不满意。”他在人工智能晚会上告诉与会者，他现在意识到“我们本应在一开始就回答所有这些问题，现在却要在大家都愤怒之后才来补救。”

“I hope this dialogue can serve as a model for how complex projects are best addressed—through direct, good-faith engagement between developers and elected officials rather than through public narratives that outpace the facts,” O’Leary told a local Utah news site KLS.com. “我希望这次对话能成为解决复杂项目问题的典范——通过开发商与民选官员之间直接、真诚的接触，而不是通过脱离事实的公众舆论来解决，”奥利里告诉犹他州当地新闻网站 KLS.com。

Critic slams plan as “performance art”

批评者抨击该计划为“行为艺术”

Before construction can begin in Utah, O’Leary’s project will need to secure more approvals and complete several environmental reviews, a local nonprofit, Alliance for a Better Utah, noted in a statement on the plan to shrink the data center. In response to O’Leary’s letter, Adams celebrated the compromise and claimed that the project could become a roadmap for how responsible data center development should work in the US. 当地非营利组织“为了更好的犹他联盟”（Alliance for a Better Utah）在关于缩减数据中心计划的声明中指出，在犹他州动工之前，奥利里的项目还需要获得更多批准并完成几项环境审查。针对奥利里的信函，亚当斯对这一妥协表示欢迎，并声称该项目可以成为美国负责任数据中心开发模式的路线图。

“With responsible water use, transparency and input from the people of Utah, we will show the nation how to build it right,” Adams said. “There must be written commitments in place, and the proposal must undergo a full permitting and environmental review process, just like any other development project in Utah.” “通过负责任的用水、透明度以及犹他州人民的参与，我们将向全国展示如何正确地进行建设，”亚当斯说。“必须有书面承诺，且该提案必须像犹他州的任何其他开发项目一样，经过完整的许可和环境审查程序。”

But some locals think there is no going back once trust is lost. After the water transfer backlash, the Salt Lake Tribune editorial board warned, “even if the data center isn’t as dreadful as feared—or if it never is actually built—the stench attached to the rushed and secret political process will take a very long time to dissipate, if it ever does.” 但一些当地人认为，一旦信任丧失，就无法挽回。在水资源转移引发强烈抵制后，《盐湖城论坛报》编辑部警告称：“即使数据中心并不像担心的那样可怕——或者即使它从未真正建成——这种仓促且秘密的政治过程所带来的恶劣影响，即使能消散，也需要很长很长的时间。”

Unsurprisingly, some residents who oppose the data center aren’t optimistic that O’Leary’s plans will do much to mitigate the local impacts they fear. NBC’s report noted that it’s not “immediately clear if the overall nine-gigawatt capacity of the project will change.” 不出所料，一些反对该数据中心的居民并不乐观，认为奥利里的计划对减轻他们所担心的当地影响作用有限。NBC 的报道指出，目前“尚不清楚该项目九吉瓦的总容量是否会发生变化”。

Brenna Williams, a community member involved in the Box Elder Accountability Referendum opposing the project, called the agreement “excellent performance art,” KLS.com reported. “I think this was the plan all along,” Williams said, suggesting that the project never would’ve been approved if the public had been engaged at the start of discussions, because the area is simply not a good candidate for a data center due to water constraints. 据 KLS.com 报道，参与反对该项目的“博克斯埃尔德问责公投”的社区成员布伦娜·威廉姆斯（Brenna Williams）称这项协议是“出色的行为艺术”。“我认为这从一开始就是计划好的，”威廉姆斯说。她暗示，如果公众在讨论之初就参与进来，该项目根本不可能获得批准，因为受限于水资源，该地区根本不适合建设数据中心。

“I don’t see any changes, and the truth is, Box Elder County is just too vulnerable for a hyper-scale data center of this size,” she said. “No matter what he does given the situation, there is going to be a big impact.” “我没看到任何改变，事实是，博克斯埃尔德县对于如此规模的超大规模数据中心来说太脆弱了，”她说。“无论他现在做什么，都会产生巨大的影响。”

Data center backlash influencing elections

数据中心引发的抵制影响选举

Adams’ pivot toward transparency is supposedly linked to his reelection bid. He’s facing down a primary against two Republican challengers this June, the Hill noted, and O’Leary told NBC News that he thinks Adams was pressured to challenge the data center size to keep his campaign on track. “I know he did it for political reasons,” O’Leary said. 亚当斯转向透明化据称与他的连任竞选有关。《国会山报》指出，他将在今年 6 月面临两名共和党挑战者的初选，而奥利里告诉 NBC 新闻，他认为亚当斯是为了确保竞选顺利进行，才被迫对数据中心规模提出质疑。“我知道他是出于政治原因才这么做的，”奥利里说。

While Donald Trump has advocated for rapid data center development across the US to keep America ahead in the AI race, the Utah case shows that not every Republican can afford to be an AI booster. 尽管唐纳德·特朗普主张在美国各地快速发展数据中心，以保持美国在人工智能竞赛中的领先地位，但犹他州的案例表明，并非每一位共和党人都能够承担起支持人工智能的代价。