Utah Data Center's Gas Plan Could Cost $690 Million a Year in Health Damages

A gas-powered Stratos data center in Utah could cause up to 45 premature deaths and $690 million in health damages every single year, according to a new analysis by EmPower Analytics Group commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Stratos, the Kevin O'Leary-backed project, is projected to consume 9 gigawatts of power at full buildout. That's more than double the annual electricity use of the entire state of Utah.

The health toll wouldn't stay in Utah, either. The analysis projects the pollution would drift into Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and even Illinois. For operators, investors, and site-selection teams, that geographic reach turns a local permitting question into a multi-state liability conversation.

What Would Stratos Actually Emit?

If entirely gas-powered, Stratos could emit up to 3,140 tons of PM2.5 annually, the analysis found. PM2.5 is fine particulate matter small enough to enter the lungs and bloodstream. Exposure raises the risk of asthma, lung cancer, heart attack, and stroke.

Michael Cork, founder and CEO of EmPower, said the underlying science is well established: "While the scale of this type of facility being built is new, the science we are using to tie this pollution to health impacts is not."

Beyond the five to 45 premature deaths per year, the projected impacts include:

• Increased heart disease and respiratory illness
• New asthma cases
• Nonfatal heart attacks
• More hospital visits, missed work, and lost school days

The economic damages range from $75 million to $690 million annually for the full 9 GW project, depending on which gas-generating technology is used. Those figures cover just one year of operation. "These facilities are not expected to operate for just one year," Cork said. "and so it's important to consider the lifetime of a facility when you're thinking about the potential health harms." Each additional year, the harms recur and compound.

Why the Technology Choice Matters So Much

The developers haven't confirmed the data center's final buildout size or the specific gas technology it will use. Early plans have said the project would run entirely on natural gas.

EmPower modeled two scenarios: 3 GW of gas, the project's first phase, and 9 GW, the expected full buildout. It also modeled two technologies:

• Modern combined-cycle gas generation, using emissions data from existing plants
• Gas-fired reciprocating internal combustion engines, using permitted emissions from an already-approved Utah data center facility

Combined-cycle comes with the lower health burden. Reciprocating engines could raise the harms five- to six-fold, the report found.

"The technology choices do change the size of harm a lot," Cork said, "but every gas scenario we evaluate harms health. In either scenario, if you are going to build a facility this size with methane gas, there are going to be health harms."

What Does This Change for the Project?

Utah Governor Spencer Cox has already pushed back on the all-gas framing. In May, amid protests over the project's water use and pollution, he said Stratos would "never" run solely on natural gas. "The very first phase will be natural gas," he told the Salt Lake Tribune, "but the other phases should not be. They should be nuclear, and they should be geothermal, and solar and other technology."

Even that first 3 GW gas phase carries serious costs, per the analysis: up to 15 premature deaths a year and up to $230 million in annual economic damages. O'Leary Digital, the developer, did not respond to a request for comment on the report or its expected power structure.

Cork offers a framing that practitioners in the sector may find useful as similar projects proliferate: "When I look at evaluating data centers using on-site power," he said, "I like to think of them as power plants with servers attached." As state regulators and communities weigh the next wave of hyperscale builds, that power-plant lens is likely to shape how these deals get permitted and priced.