Athlete / Activist Caroline Gleich on Data Centers, the Situation in Utah, & Why It Matters to All of Us

A wave of unchecked data center development is reshaping the American landscape, driven by a handful of tech billionaires and fast-tracked through shadowy government agencies like Utah's MITA. Caroline Gleich, an athlete and activist, reveals how a proposed 20,000-acre data center in Box Elder County—backed by Kevin O'Leary and sold as a national security imperative—was approved without public vote, environmental review, or even a hydrological study. The project would consume 4 billion gallons of water annually and double Utah’s entire energy usage, all while transferring agricultural water rights to a foreign-owned entity. Gleich exposes the dangerous narrative that 'if we don’t build these, China will win,' calling it a manufactured crisis to bypass democracy. She describes how the project’s defenders, including the governor and O'Leary, used disinformation, personal attacks, and the DARVO tactic (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender) to silence opposition—especially when she, a grassroots advocate, was falsely accused of being funded by the Chinese Communist Party. Yet, she argues, this backlash has unified Utahns across the political spectrum into a powerful grassroots movement. Her own Senate campaign, which she lost after raising only $1.3 million against a $16 million opponent, exposed the broken system where wealth—not merit or public will—determines who gets elected. Still, she urges listeners: don’t despair.