Part two of Ecocide's two-part series on the data center boom | Across the United States, enormous data centers are being approved behind closed doors, often before the people who will live beside them know they exist. In part one of our two-part series on the data center boom, we looked at what these projects demand from communities: electricity, water, land, and public money. Part two asks why the public so often finds out only after the most important decisions have already been made. From The Dalles, Oregon, to Broadview, Montana, the pattern is consistent: secret negotiations, nondisclosure agreements, confidential utility contracts, and public hearings held only after projects have gained momentum. At the center of the episode is Stratos, Kevin O’Leary’s proposed data center and private power complex in Box Elder County, Utah. Residents were given only days to understand a project that could transform tens of thousands of acres and dramatically increase the state’s carbon emissions. Communities are fighting back through lawsuits, ballot initiatives, recalls, and moratoriums. But as the federal government opens public land to data center construction, many local tools may no longer apply. As tech companies spend hundreds of billions building the infrastructure of artificial intelligence, who pays, who benefits, and who gets a vote?
