By McKenzie Romero | Editor
The Stratos data center campus planned for Box Elder County could emit “dangerous quantities” of air pollution with the potential to reach across state lines and linked to death and illness, according to a new analysis.
The report zeroes in on plans for the project to generate 9 gigawatts of power — more than double what the state currently consumes — using mostly natural gas processes.
In today’s Dispatch we break down the report’s findings about what the data center could do to Utah air, a jail sentence for two Utahns who cut handcuffs off an immigrant fleeing ICE, and the U.S. Department of Justice’s plans to send 1,000 election monitors across the country.
HAPPENING TODAY: The Utah Investigative Journalism Project and ACLU of Utah are offering a free webinar on understanding voting rights and what to do in case your rights or someone else’s are interfered with at the polls.
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“If that demand were met entirely by gas, our highest estimates reach 45 additional premature deaths and $690 million in health damages each year, with effects extending far beyond Utah.” — Michael Cork, CEO of EmPower Analytics Group, about the organization’s findings on the Stratos Project’s potential air quality impacts.
The sun rises over a part of Hansel Valley, in Box Elder County, near the proposed Stratos Project, a massive data center planned for 40,000 acres of land, on Thursday, May 28, 2026. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Alixel Cabrera
If the plan to use mostly natural gas to power the Stratos Project goes through, the data center campus could emit up to 3,140 tons of fine particulate matter each year, which would impact not only Utahns, but also residents in Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado. It could even reach Illinois, according to a new report.
After facing explosive scrutiny over the data center project, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said earlier this year the developers, backed by “Shark Tank” celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary, have committed to pursue other energy resources, including renewables, energy storage and nuclear power generation in addition to natural gas.
The Orrin G. Hatch United States Courthouse is pictured in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (McKenzie Romero/Utah News Dispatch)
By Annie Knox
A Utah couple who admitted to helping a man escape as immigration officers tried to detain him was ordered to serve four days behind bars, a sentence prosecutors say will help deter others from doing the same as the Trump administration continues its immigration crackdown.
In October 2025, the couple was in their car in Salt Lake City when a man ran into traffic and came up to them, saying “help me please” in Spanish, prosecutors said in court filings. A video posted by one of them described helping the man and showed someone cutting off his handcuffs.
People vote at the Main Library in Salt Lake City on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
DC BUREAU
By Jonathan Shorman
The U.S. Department of Justice plans to send election monitors to every state ahead of the midterm elections, expanding a long-standing practice that’s spurred concern this year among Democrats and voting rights advocates because of President Donald Trump’s push to influence elections.
The Justice Department announced it will have a presence in all 50 states. DOJ spokesperson Kiersten Pels told States Newsroom that about 1,000 monitors will be involved but that the department won’t disclose the full list of monitored locations until Election Day.
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