Saturday Night Live takes aim at Kevin O'Leary, Box Elder County data center project

SALT LAKE CITY — The Box Elder County data center project and, more particularly, developer Kevin O'Leary, were the focus of a parody on NBC's Saturday Night Live this weekend.

James Austin Johnson, perhaps best known for his imitations of President Donald Trump, portrayed O'Leary as a guest on the "Weekend Update" segment of the national comedy show. Host Colin Jost asked the faux O'Leary about the controversial project, first noting polling showing strong opposition to data centers.

"All I want is to buy up 40,000 acres of God's untouched splendor and replace it with a very loud computer that steals your job. Is it going to take up precious water? Absolutely. Is it going to provide a necessary service? Who's to say?" Johnson says. "But on the flip side, it's going to make me a tremendous amount of money, and I think that's great."

The skit portrays O'Leary as out of touch, self-centered and focused only on making money. Critics of the Box Elder County proposal have focused their criticism on the potential environmental impacts they fear it will have, particularly related to water use. But they have also taken aim at O'Leary at times, suggesting he's overly focused on the project's potential economic benefits and less on its potential impacts on the community.

Johnson as O'Leary says the Stratos Area Project, as it's known, will create noise and water issues, but — in the skit's bid to portray him as unconcerned — notes that he doesn't live in the area and therefore won't be affected.

"The noise and water pollution — that's only going to affect this area," Johnson as O'Leary says, gesturing to a map showing the project location in northern Utah. "Colin, you have to understand, I don't live there."

"Right, but other people do live there," Jost says.

"You're missing the point. That's not real to me, OK?" Johnson says, imitating the businessman's calm, measured tone.

In real life, O'Leary and project developers have emphasized that they plan to use data center technology that minimizes water consumption, and they've scaled back the project area from 40,000 acres to 20,000 acres, with development to occur only on perhaps 10,000 acres. They've also stressed the support they've received from government officials and the landowners where the development would occur.

As originally proposed, officials say they plan to develop up to 9 gigawatts of power-generating capacity to serve the data center. Now they're stressing that the first phase of development only calls for 1.5 gigawatts of power-generating capacity.

Beyond Stratos project particulars, the Saturday Night Live segment also references the federal defamation suit O'Leary faces from two Utah organizations and their leaders. They maintain that O'Leary defamed them during the contentious public debate when the proposal first publicly emerged by saying they had links to China. O'Leary has rejected the charges and sought dismissal of the lawsuit.

"Look, yes, I made the mildly inflammatory claim that every single person in Utah who opposes me is a paid communist super agent from China. Was I wrong? Perhaps, but just because they're not doesn't mean they aren't," Johnson, as O'Leary, says in the Saturday Night Live segment.

The data center plans move forward, even amid another legal effort to stall the project. A top O'Leary Digital official told KSL that project design details face tweaks as regulators and others work on additional elements of the plans.

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