A Texas-wide week of action is underway against the rapid spread of new data centers, and it has a high-profile voice at its center. Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has spent the week joining local communities to protest the facilities, elevating a local resource fight into a statewide political push.
Miller is calling on state leaders to hold a special session to temporarily pause the building of the massive facilities. Framing it as a moment that demands action, he argues the state cannot keep approving the centers without stopping to weigh their impact first.
At the heart of his warning is water. Miller says the data centers gulp down millions of gallons of water every day, putting heavy stress on local water supplies, farmland and the state's power grid, straining resources that rural communities and agriculture depend on.
Compounding the concern, he points out that no single state agency currently tracks or limits how much water the facilities use. That gap is especially significant in rural areas without water rules, where large operations could draw heavily with little oversight.
Miller carried the fight to Lubbock, where neighbors are upset over fears that a new data center may be coming to town. City leaders there approved land changes that residents suspect could tie a massive facility into the city's power and water lines, deepening local anxiety.
Hundreds of people joined Miller in protest, and the anger has turned toward local officials. Residents are threatening to remove local leaders from office if they do not pause future projects, signaling that the dispute could carry real political consequences at the ballot box.
City officials in Lubbock counter that the land in question is actually meant for a factory, not a data center. Unconvinced, people living in the area are pushing a petition to let voters decide, while backers of the pause insist the governor has the authority to bring the legislature back into session and should do so.