Utah lawmakers are working on a package of legislation aimed at dramatically bolstering the state’s energy output in hopes of becoming a go-to destination for computing power, as the world races toward an artificial intelligence future.
Top Republican leaders are pledging to double or even triple the state’s power output capacity in the coming decades. To do so, they say they want the state to build new nuclear power plants, exploit low natural gas prices, and vastly expand the capacity of a geothermal plant in the southern part of the state.
In an interview, Senate President Stuart Adams (R) — who wants to triple electric output by 2050 — framed positioning the state as an AI hub as a national security issue.
“The country that’s going to control AI is going to control the world, both economically with goods and services and militarily with weapons systems,” Adams said. “Seeing what’s going on in the world, I am very much afraid that we’re losing our edge sometimes when it comes to technology, and that’s never been the case in America before.”
“We know its potential. The problem is AI needs data centers, big data centers. What do data centers need? They need power. They need reliable power,” he said.
Gov. Spencer Cox (R) used his State of the State address to highlight his administration’s efforts to speed the construction of advanced nuclear reactors, a project he dubbed Operation Gigawatt.
“We’re laying groundwork for advanced nuclear reactors while protecting national security by building capacity to be a net energy exporter,” Cox said. “Together we will unleash Utah’s immense energy resources and drive prices down, all while making our grid more secure and reliable.”
Environmental groups are skeptical of the push to grow power generation capacity by such huge margins.
“Data centers aren’t really providing that many jobs and contributions to the economy as other types of industry would,” said Luis Miranda, a senior campaign organizer with the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign.
Adams said the state is uniquely positioned to host the first micro-reactors, a new technology the industry hopes will revive construction after a decades-long hiatus that followed the Three Mile Island disaster. Utah is home to 40 of the 50 critical minerals needed to bolster those micro-reactors, he said.
Utah legislators approved a bill last year to allow the state to avoid federal rules relating to energy production until the federal government takes the state to court. A landmark Supreme Court case in 2024, in which justices overruled a 1984 decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, will help Utah avoid federal interference, Adams said.
Governors in several other states, including Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer (D) and Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin (R), have made the revival of nuclear power a cornerstone of their energy plans.
Those plans have raised further red flags among environmental groups, who worry about the potential fallout in the event of a disaster — and about the sky-high costs of more recent nuclear projects.
“Almost every large project trying to do this has gone on to cost at least twice as much if not more and caused other states to cancel these projects,” Miranda said. “Currently, solar and wind and using energy storage smartly is still the most cost-effective way to go about this.”
Data centers require more than just power to operate. They also need water to cool, a serious potential hurdle for drought-parched Western states.
Utah lawmakers have been concerned about declines in water levels of the Great Salt Lake, which has sat below what scientists call its healthy range for more than a decade. Today, the lake is about four feet below the bottom end of the healthy range, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
“Water in Utah is a big deal,” Adams said. “If [data centers] use water, we’re in trouble.”
Adams said that with enough new power, future data centers could use central air conditioning to cool computers, rather than water.
Some states fear that the rush of new data centers could fuel the next generation of incentive wars, in which legislators offer tax breaks, credits or cash to attract new projects. Those fears are especially pronounced because data centers — unlike high-tech manufacturing plants — don’t require hundreds or thousands of well-trained, well-paid workers who would generate tax revenue.
“This isn’t going to be a race to the bottom to try to give away incentives to get data centers. I don’t want to participate in that,” Adams said. “Our competition in Utah, I believe, is the fact that we have great regulatory processes, a great work environment, we have a decent tax environment and we have a great quality of life.”