Utah is racing to become a national hub for artificial intelligence infrastructure, but the power needed to run that ambition is pulling the state back toward fossil fuels at a pace that could lock in carbon-heavy energy for decades. A $2 billion, 100-acre AI data center campus in West Jordan, developed by CIM Group and Novva, has already secured 175 megawatts of continuous utility power, and the state legislature has cleared new regulatory pathways for even larger loads. The tension between economic opportunity and energy sourcing is sharpening as Utah’s grid faces demand it was never built to handle.
A $2 Billion Bet on AI in West Jordan
The scale of capital flowing into Utah’s data center sector is hard to overstate. Banks recently committed $2 billion to finance a 100-acre AI data center in West Jordan, a suburb south of Salt Lake City. The project, developed by CIM Group and Novva, includes 175 MW of continuous power tied to a utility deal with Rocky Mountain Power. That single campus will consume roughly as much electricity as a small city, running around the clock to support AI workloads that cannot tolerate interruptions. Unlike traditional colocation facilities that may see variable usage, AI training clusters run near full tilt, meaning the grid impact is both large and constant.
What makes this deal significant beyond its price tag is what it signals about where Utah’s incremental electricity will come from. Rocky Mountain Power’s generation portfolio still leans heavily on coal and natural gas, and long-term power contracts for data centers tend to be structured around firm, dispatchable capacity. Without binding commitments to pair these massive new loads with renewable procurement, each megawatt contracted to a data center effectively extends the economic life of existing fossil plants or justifies building new gas-fired capacity. The West Jordan project is not an outlier; it is the template for how Utah plans to attract and serve energy-hungry industries, and its structure is likely to be replicated as more AI developers and cloud providers scout the Wasatch Front for expansion sites.
Operation Gigawatt and the Push to Double Output
Governor Spencer Cox launched Operation Gigawatt with an explicit goal: double Utah’s power production over the next 10 years. The initiative directly cites energy-intensive industries like AI and advanced computing as primary drivers of that demand, framing the buildout as a prerequisite for long-term economic competitiveness. The program’s overview emphasizes transmission upgrades, streamlined permitting, and “all-of-the-above” resource development, but doubling output in a decade requires generation assets that can be permitted and financed quickly. In practice, that often means natural gas turbines and life extensions for existing fossil units, not only solar farms or geothermal wells that face longer interconnection queues and siting disputes.
The gap between the state’s rhetoric about resource diversity and its likely buildout trajectory is where the fossil fuel risk concentrates. Utah has genuine renewable and geothermal potential. Theresa Foxley, speaking at the University of Utah, described the state’s geology as an “energy royal flush”, pointing to enhanced geothermal systems, wind corridors, and high solar insolation. Yet a royal flush only matters if you play the hand. Operation Gigawatt’s compressed timeline and the political urgency to meet corporate demand could push planners toward the fastest, cheapest options available, which remain fossil-heavy. Federal data from the EIA generator inventory will eventually reveal whether Utah’s new capacity additions match its clean-energy rhetoric or default to gas plants and extended coal operations built to anchor long-term industrial loads.
S.B. 132 and the Rise of 100-Plus MW Customers
The Utah Legislature has moved in parallel to smooth the path for the largest power consumers. During the 2025 General Session, lawmakers passed $87.2 million general rate increase for Rocky Mountain Power, a figure reduced from the utility’s original request but still substantial. Regulators signaled concern about overburdening households and small businesses, yet the approved hike underscores a basic reality: the costs of new substations, high-voltage lines, and incremental generation are largely socialized across the customer base unless specific cost-allocation tools are deployed. As more large projects like the West Jordan campus connect, the pressure for further infrastructure investment will intensify.
This is where the AI boom intersects directly with everyday life. A family in Provo or Ogden that never touches an AI chatbot will still see higher monthly electric bills because the grid is being expanded to serve industrial-scale computing. Unless regulators carve out separate tariffs or require data center developers to shoulder a larger share of the fixed costs, residential customers will effectively subsidize the backbone that makes Utah attractive to cloud providers. The state’s broader regulatory framework, administered through agencies such as the Division of Consumer Protection, will come under pressure to ensure that marketing and rate structures are transparent and that low-income households are not disproportionately exposed to volatility created by speculative infrastructure bets.
Regulation, Workforce, and the Path to Cleaner Growth
Utah’s push to become an AI infrastructure hub is not only an engineering challenge; it is also a governance and workforce problem. The data center buildout requires a steady pipeline of licensed electricians, engineers, and HVAC specialists, all of whom fall under professional standards overseen by the Division of Professional Licensing. Ensuring that this labor force is large enough and properly trained will influence how quickly projects can pivot toward more efficient technologies (such as advanced cooling systems, on-site battery storage, or integration with future geothermal resources) that could reduce the overall carbon intensity of AI facilities. If the state underinvests in skilled workers or allows standards to lag, developers may default to familiar, fossil-reliant designs that can be built quickly but lock in higher emissions.
At the same time, Utah’s regulators and lawmakers retain significant power to shape the trajectory of this boom. They can require that large-scale service contracts include clear emissions reporting, incentivize data centers to co-locate with new renewable projects, or design rate structures that reward flexible loads willing to adjust operations around periods of high renewable output. Agencies charged with consumer protection and utility oversight can scrutinize whether cost recovery for grid upgrades fairly reflects who benefits from them. The choice is not between AI growth and climate responsibility, but between a path that treats fossil-heavy power as the default and one that uses the AI rush as leverage to accelerate cleaner generation. The decisions made in the next few years, on contracts, permitting, and rate design, will determine whether Utah’s “energy royal flush” becomes a winning hand or a missed opportunity locked into gas and coal for a generation.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
