SALT LAKE CITY — House Speaker Mike Schultz is backing a citizen referendum on the Box Elder County data center project.
"Studies need to be done and we need accurate information and a clear understanding of the potential impacts and benefits. This is ultimately a local decision, and I support allowing the community to make that decision based on facts and good information," Speaker Schultz, R-Hooper, said in a statement to FOX 13 News on Tuesday.
The Speaker has previously called for studies to explain to Box Elder County residents the impacts of celebrity investor Kevin O'Leary's massive data center project. As FOX 13 News first reported last week, the Utah State Legislature's powerful Natural Resources Interim Committee voted unanimously to study the environmental impacts of data centers. Republican and Democratic members of the committee pointed to growing statewide concerns about such facilities.
MIDA violated state law in approval process of Box Elder County data center, group claims:
Speaker Schultz owns land near the proposed 40,000 acre data center site in the Hansel Valley. However, he has insisted he was not consulted on the project ahead of time and he is in the process of trading that land to another farmer for property near the Utah-Idaho border.
