Texas Governor Greg Abbott said AI data center developers have largely brought public opposition upon themselves by failing to work with local communities before launching projects, arguing that the industry's rapid expansion has fueled some anger across the Lone Star State and beyond. Speaking on ABC News' This Week on Sunday, the Republican governor said many facilities appeared in communities with little public awareness or engagement, creating concerns about power consumption, water use, and neighborhood impacts. "They basically dug their own grave for the problem that's been caused for them and that's why they got the backlash they deserve," Abbott said, who added that Texas has paused approvals for new data centers while new statewide standards are implemented.
Abbott said future projects in Texas will have to meet requirements related to water usage, electricity demand, consumer costs and local community approval before they can move forward. Data centers have become a growing source of concern in communities across the country. Facilities supporting cloud computing and AI require large amounts of electricity and often significant quantities of water for cooling.
Critics have also raised concerns about noise, pressure on power grids, rising electricity costs, and the environmental impacts associated with meeting growing energy demand. Despite this, tech giants including Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Google are racing to build massive computing facilities to support AI models and cloud services. Newsweek reached out to those companies by email Sunday for comment.
Earlier this month, Abbott announced that his state would halt approvals for proposed data centers seeking connections to the state grid while regulators conduct a comprehensive audit. The review will examine developers’ expected electricity and water consumption, cooling systems, tax incentives, ownership and efforts to mitigate impacts on surrounding communities. Abbott said projects that fail to meet the state’s requirements should be denied connections to the grid.
Many are unaware that ERCOT [Electric Reliability Council of Texas] is tracking a more than 500 percent increase in peak electricity demand. This unprecedented growth could endanger the reliability and stability of the Texas electric grid,” Abbott’s press secretary Andrew Mahaleris previously told Newsweek. He said Texas law requires data centers to report their power and water usage, but fewer than 10 percent were in compliance.
Simply put, Texans must come first,” Mahaleris added. President Donald Trump criticized Abbott’s decision to pause approvals for new data centers, calling the move a “mistake.” "I saw Texas the other day sort of is against data centers,” Trump said in a nearly hourlong interview with Punchbowl News earlier this month. And I’m not taking positions, I just think it’s a mistake, because there are other communities that want it.
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