Transcription
What happened with Utah's data center is headed for your state next. This is part two of two, so if you haven't seen the first part, please head over to my reels and check it out.
There's a state agency in Utah called MIDA. It has police power as though it were a city, and its sub-districts can use eminent domain to take property and even the groundwater underneath it. Does that make you mad?
So, there's got to be some independent agency checking them, right? Actually, MIDA hires and pays its own private auditor. The state's independent auditor, the real watchdog, is locked out by design.
We only know all this because of state auditor Tina Cannon. After thousands of us flooded her office with letters and calls, she listened. Cannon built a public website with an interactive timeline, board history, every project, and even admitted that her own office doesn't audit MIDA and can't control the firm that does.
So, here's why you should be concerned if you're not in Utah. MIDA's own plan calls this a replicable model. It's a blueprint, and it's spreading.
There's another huge project, too, in Millard County. There's the Jewel Data Center and the Creek Stone Data Center. They're on different tracks, but it's the same fast-forward, same water, land, and power grab. The steps never change. MIDA picks the land, the county signs one consent paper, and a commissioner literally called it irrevocable. The environmental review comes after the deal, not before, and a new law, HB 60, removes your right to even fight it in court.
And the super gnarly scary thing is that MIDA is only one of seven state legislature-created entities with this type of authority. If they can cram this kind of government overreach down our throats in Utah, they can do it in your state next. What happens here isn't going to stay here.
This is bad, but we're not powerless. We made the state auditor act just by showing up and refusing to shut up. And we're so united on this, left and right, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and we will continue to fight to protect Utah and to warn everyone else.
So go check it out for yourself, transparent.utah.gov/mida, then share this because people in every state need to see this coming.