Texas Governor Greg Abbott is reversing course on the wave of data centers that has swept his state. Facing mounting opposition in local communities, Abbott said he has pressed pause on any new data center being able to join operations in the state of Texas. He noted that other governors have taken similar steps, framing the move as part of a wider rethink of how quickly the facilities have spread.
The scale of the buildout helps explain the backlash. An ABC News analysis found that Texas is now among the states with the most data centers, with more than 300 already operating and at least 200 more in the pipeline. Having once been promoted as a magnet for the industry, the state is now grappling with the strain that rapid, large-scale construction has placed on communities and infrastructure.
The issue has also become politically charged, spilling into Abbott's re-election campaign. According to the reporting, Abbott took 20 million dollars in campaign donations from data center executives and companies, and handed the industry billions of dollars in tax breaks. That history has sharpened scrutiny of his sudden shift toward restraint after years of encouraging the sector's growth.
During the pause, Abbott said, he has set guidelines and guardrails that all data centers must comply with. They must identify their water usage and not demand water from communities that need it, and they must not take power from the Texas grid that is needed elsewhere. On top of that, they are expected to actually lower the cost of electricity for consumers, and to avoid disturbing neighborhoods or rural communities.
Abbott also tied approval to the consent of the people who live nearby. He said data centers that want to operate in Texas must first get the approval of those in local communities, arguing that the companies had failed to build that support. In his words, the operators had not worked in collaboration with the state or local governments and had effectively dug their own grave, drawing the backlash they deserved.
Questions have centered on just how fast projects were waved through in the past. Citing New York Times reporting, the interview pointed to one massive power plant for a Meta data center that was approved in 20 days, another in just three days and yet another in two. Abbott responded that the companies did not get approvals from the state of Texas itself, but rather had to obtain approvals to build the power plants that would run their facilities.
He pointed to Meta's project in El Paso to illustrate a gap in the system. Because that site sits outside the Texas power grid, the company was not required to go through the grid approval process, meaning there was no public notice or approval at the local level there. Even so, Abbott said, the clarity of his new guidelines has had an effect, with the Meta data center in El Paso announcing that it will be in full compliance with the guardrails he has set out.