Leia Larsen - The Salt Lake Tribune

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Hansel Valley on Friday, May 1, 2026.

Kevin O’Leary-backed Utah data center project seeks new water right

By Leia Larsen | May 19, 2026, 5:25 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) The north shore of the Great Salt Lake at Hansel Valley on Friday, May 1, 2026.

Will the Great Salt Lake hit a new record low this year?

By Leia Larsen | May 15, 2026, 12:00 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) The north shore of the Great Salt Lake and Hansel Valley on Friday, May 1, 2026.

Water rights request for massive Box Elder data center withdrawn after thousands of Utahns file protests

By Leia Larsen | May 8, 2026, 4:41 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) The sun sets over Rocky Mountain Power's natural-gas fired Gadsby Plant in Salt Lake City, which generates less than one-tenth the energy that the Stratos Project's plant will potentially produce, as seen on Wednesday September 15, 2021.

‘So much worse than I even thought’: Utah’s ‘hyperscale’ data center could create massive heat island near Great Salt Lake

By Leia Larsen | May 7, 2026, 3:32 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Hansel Valley on Friday, May 1, 2026.

Massive Utah data center complex ‘can’ be powered by renewables, O’Leary says — after state insisted ‘100%’ natural gas

By Leia Larsen | May 8, 2026, 4:42 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) People debated as the Box Elder County Commission prepared to meet on a MIDA and Kevin O'Leary data center project in Brigham City on Monday, April 27, 2026.

After delaying a decision, Box Elder County is set to vote on a hyperscale data center project. Here’s what we know.

By Samantha Moilanen | Leia Larsen | Tony Semerad | Megan Banta | May 8, 2026, 4:46 p.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sunset Pass Road in the Hansel Valley, on Tuesday, April 28, 2026.

Hundreds of Utahns file to block Kevin O’Leary’s proposed massive data center campus over water concerns

By Leia Larsen | Samantha Moilanen | May 1, 2026, 12:00 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Super heated waters bubble to the surface on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, on the Bear River near Preston, Idaho, the site of the Bear River Massacre in which a village of Shoshone were attacked in 1863 and experienced the largest slaughter of Indigenous people in the nation’s history. The Shoshone acquired the site in 2018 with plans to turn it into a place of healing.

A Shoshone-led restoration to bring water back to the Great Salt Lake is earning recognition

By Leia Larsen | April 30, 2026, 3:52 p.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Pineview Reservoir, on Monday, April 20, 2026.

Don’t turn on your sprinklers yet, Utah water officials warn

By Leia Larsen | April 22, 2026, 2:52 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) A passenger jet takes off in a dusty, hazy Salt Lake Valley in July 2024. The EPA has signaled its intent to revote a "serious" classification for northern Utah's summertime ozone pollution.

Trump admin helps Utah steer clear of worse air quality status — but not because the air got better

By Leia Larsen | Jose Davila IV | April 21, 2026, 10:34 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Dust blows over the Great Salt Lake in Davis County on Monday, May 12, 2025.

Utahns already breathe Great Salt Lake dust. A new study finds they may be eating it, too.

By Leia Larsen | April 16, 2026, 1:35 p.m.

(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Great Salt Lake is seen from the Eccles Wildlife Education Center in Farmington, Monday, April 13, 2026.

Utah business leaders put up $30M in race to save the Great Salt Lake before the Olympics

By Leia Larsen | April 13, 2026, 9:11 p.m.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Protesters gather during a Monopoly-themed rally to protest utility-driven rate hikes and obstacles to renewable energy at the corporate headquarters for Rocky Mountain Power in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, April 1, 2025.

Rocky Mountain Power’s latest plan shows more investment in fossil fuels for the foreseeable future

By Leia Larsen | April 10, 2026, 4:39 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Despite getting a little more snow than most other resorts, Beaver Mountain begins showing the effects of the hottest winter in state history on Friday, March 20, 2026.

Utah’s snowpack melted out weeks early. Here’s what to expect in the months ahead.

By Leia Larsen | April 8, 2026, 7:00 p.m.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Josh Craft, the Director of Government Relations and Public Affairs for Utah Clean Energy, shows the outdoor plug that connects his solar panels to his home in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 20, 2026.

A new kind of solar is taking off — with Utah leading the way

By Leia Larsen | April 7, 2026, 2:50 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Gov. Spencer Cox gather in north-central Tooele County for a news event with state and local leaders to announce plans related to Utah’s ongoing work to develop long-term strategic opportunities in nuclear energy, on Friday, March 27, 2026.

Inside Utah’s pitch for a federal nuclear hub. It’s bigger than you think.

By Leia Larsen | Emily Anderson Stern | April 3, 2026, 3:29 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Salt Lake City skyline on Monday, Jan. 13, 2025.

The Forest Service is moving its federal HQ to Salt Lake City. Here’s why.

By Jeff Parrott | Leia Larsen | April 1, 2026, 12:27 a.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Bill Johnson researches the freshwater aquifer beneath the Great Salt Lake that allows a stand of phragmites to grow on Tuesday, June 17, 2025.

How mapping a water-guzzling invasive weed could help refill the Great Salt Lake

By Leia Larsen | March 25, 2026, 12:00 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) A record-warm winter faces record-high temperatures this week as people take to the slopes at Snowbasin Resort on Wednesday, March 18, 2026.

Utah’s backcountry skiers in ‘considerable’ danger amid record March heat wave

By Leia Larsen | March 19, 2026, 7:40 p.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Inland port site near Tooele on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.

Utah’s scarce wetlands are facing new pressures: inland ports and data centers

By Leia Larsen | March 16, 2026, 4:35 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Outflow from the Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility in Salt Lake City on Monday, Sept. 22, 2025.

From data centers to Trump: How Utah lawmakers shaped water policy this session

By Leia Larsen | March 12, 2026, 12:00 p.m.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Glossy ibis fly over the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, a 74,000-acre nature reserve in the northern Great Salt Lake on Wednesday, June 23, 2021.

Utah will sell part of the Great Salt Lake to the feds — a deal lawmakers call a ‘win-win’ for the lake

By Leia Larsen | March 9, 2026, 9:03 p.m.

(AP File Photo |Thomas Herbert) In this file photo from March 26, 1999, the first load of nuclear waste arrives at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, N.M., from the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Twenty years and more than 12,380 shipments later, tons of Cold War-era waste from decades of bomb-making and nuclear research across the U.S. have been stashed in the salt caverns that make up the underground facility.

After Nevada rejected it, some want Utah to take on the nation’s nuclear waste

By Leia Larsen | Matt Ward | Millard County Chronicle Progress | March 4, 2026, 7:23 p.m.

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Protesters gather during a Monopoly-themed rally to protest utility-driven rate hikes and obstacles to renewable energy at the corporate headquarters for Rocky Mountain Power in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, April 1, 2025.

PacifiCorp to sell its Washington power plants, wind farms — a ‘divorce’ cheered by Utah leaders

By Leia Larsen | February 18, 2026, 2:32 p.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) IPP Generating Station on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.

Who wants to run Utah’s idled coal plant? These 14 companies.

By Leia Larsen | February 17, 2026, 9:12 p.m.