Utah senator smacks ABC reporters phone out of hand amid Data Center controversy

https://www.abc4.com/news/digital-exclusives/reporter-jj-nursery-utah-senator-jerry-stevenson-box-elder-county-data-center/

64•randycupertino•1h ago

Comments

nradov•1h ago

It's so weird that people are getting worked up about a fake project. Regardless of government activities, there is no industry financing to actually build anything.

Kevin O'Leary’s Biggest Scam Yet: https://youtu.be/RWoV0EXxa7c

krupan•49m ago

If you are right that it's all a scam then that makes it even more upsetting that government leaders are falling for it

janice1999•1h ago

> ABC4’s crew was also issued a trespassing notice.

The class system in the US has never been more on display with the datacenter build outs. A senator who attacks a journalist gets them threatened by the police. Town halls to listen to local "concerns" are charades where they look for any excuse to arrest anyone who voices opposition [1].

[1] https://www.newson6.com/tulsa-oklahoma-news/arrest-made-duri...

stvltvs•1h ago

It often seems that police officers' most sacred duty is to protect the property rights of the wealthy.

pocksuppet•57m ago

It seems like it is, because it is.

HumblyTossed•52m ago

>>> Claremore police arrested Darren Blanchard for trespassing during the meeting after officers said he refused to follow the rules after going over his allotted time to speak. Police escorted the man out of the meeting and booked him into the Rogers County Jail.

There's something very very wrong with that.

tragiclos•47m ago

On the other hand, even if the town council takes concerns seriously and denies permission to build, the companies doing the building will just sue and build them anyways[1].

[1] https://fortune.com/2026/05/06/ai-data-center-michigan-salin...

ryandrake•15m ago

It's almost as if constituents are treated like cattle and it doesn't ultimately matter what they want.

I guess this is what they mean when they say they want to "run government like a business:" They mean run government to enrich themselves and be totally unaccountable to the public.

Trasmatta•1h ago

Sounds like someone is pretty easily triggered

dlenski•1h ago

Problems with the title:

1. The story is not about one of Utah's 2 US senators, but about one of its state senators. The title should probably say "Utah state senator."

2. There is a missing apostrophe in "reporter's"

mike_d•1h ago

He is a Utah senator. It is a job title.

dlenski•56m ago

Many people reading this headline will initially assume, as I did, that it refers to one of Utah's two US senators.

Why not add the word "state" and immediately clarify this?

happytoexplain•47m ago

I am absolutely amazed to discover that, despite spending my whole life living in the US, I've never known that states also have their own senates. I'm starting to think that there is no age at which I will stop being embarrassed by the things I do not know.

mmh0000•32m ago

As always, there's an XKCD for everything: https://xkcd.com/1053/

dlenski•31m ago

> there is no age at which I will stop being embarrassed by the things I do not know.

I'm with you on that!

An additional fun (?) fact is that Nebraska has only senators, not state representatives, due to having a unicameral legislature unlike all the other states and the federal government. The members of Nebraska's single-house legislature are customarily called "senators," and they're also officially non-partisan, though in the modern era this is just a fig leaf and their partisan political affiliations are clear.

dabinat•1h ago

The impression I get from conversations with non-technical people is that they associate data centers with AI and all the associated controversies and negative externalities that come with that. They do not realize that there are non-AI uses for data centers. I wonder if it’s only a matter of time before people are openly trying to torch data centers.

pocksuppet•57m ago

To be fair, 99.9999% of all new datacenter projects are explicitly for AI and only for AI. Only AI projects want this much rack space. All the big tech companies combined (except their cloud computing arms) could fit together in just one of these AI datacenters.

Stefan-H•53m ago

Have a source for that?

nervousvarun•55m ago

I have family in Lakeland, Fl which is an area that is currently deciding on whether to build one. All I've heard from them is they're worried about their power rates and water bills going up. Their assumption is the added strain on the local infrastructure will be passed on to them.

People are drowning everywhere with inflation and anything that is perceived to lead to a higher monthly bill is going to encounter resistance.

krupan•50m ago

Some of the people are upset that it's AI. Most in Utah are upset about drought conditions and reports of heavy metals in the air thanks to parts of The Great Salt Lake's lakebed being exposed to the air, and now this being rammed down their throats with no explanation of how it doesn't make all that worse.

Not to mention it's being given an 80% tax break, and the air quality is Salt Lake City being the worst in the world on bad days (the plan is for this data center to be natural gas powered).

fooey•16m ago

The proposed build out will consume 9gw of electricity, all LNG fueled

The entire State of Utah, *combined* consumes less than half that much energy.

grahamburger•58m ago

Wow, second time this week that Utah has been on the HN Frontpage! Guess we're moving up in the world! Or, well, down, as neither story reflects particularly well on our state.

krupan•54m ago

People in Utah are super upset about this data center project (and no, they aren't bussed-in paid protestors like "Mr. Wonderful" claims). Check Instagram and ksl.com for all the drama, it's very entertaining. Utahns are being asked to save water at every opportunity and then this world-record sized data center gets green lit by the state government with zero explanation as to how that jives with the drought narrative. People are already tracking down the financial links between state government officials and the people behind this are already being discovered. State senator slaps a reporter's iPhone out of their hand,county commissioner gets teary eyed saying his family was threatened, governor calls the attitude of all the citizens complaining "dumb" and throws a little temper tantrum. It's incredible

sizzzzlerz•39m ago

You know there has to be money being passed under the table to the council members, state legislature, and governor's office by the billionaire's wanting to build these things. There is absolutely no benefit to the local's to have this in their backyard. The construction money will go to out-of-the-area contractor's to build it, they'll staff it (minimal as it will be) with H1B visa holders from India, and money that won't see light of day in the community. All they'll have is higher property taxes, water, and electricity bills. Of course, being republican, they'll continue to vote these same people back into office.

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