Full interview: Utah data center developer Kevin O'Leary reacts to 75% reduction demand

Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams, who chairs the powerful Utah board that approved the development of a massive data center in Box Elder County, now says celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary’s hyperscale data center plan is too large and needs greater environmental oversight. “I’ve sent a letter directly to Kevin O’Leary calling for a 75% reduction in the proposed data center project area, from 40,000 acres to approximately 10,000 acres,” Senate President J. Stuart Adams said in a statement Monday announcing he’d written to O’Leary. The Utah politician’s backpedaling comes after a month of intense public pressure against the data center, which Adams acknowledged Monday, citing “public feedback and further review” as his reason to call for scaling back the project. The Salt Lake Tribune spoke to O’Leary via Zoom just hours after he received Adams’ public letter. *A previous version of this video was uploaded without a video track enabled.