Political Sheet

Texas Data Center Backlash Tests Abbott

1 hour ago
by Scott K. James
4 min read
Editorial illustration of transmission towers crossing rural Texas toward a data center facility
Progress is easy to sell until the wires cross somebody else's pasture.
Written by Scott K. James

Rural Texas voters are pushing back on data centers, transmission lines and the costs of growth they say are landing in their communities.

E&E News reports that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has a problem brewing in the places Republicans usually count on without much drama: rural Texas. As Abbott seeks a fourth term, the state’s aggressive push toward power-hungry data centers and a planned $33 billion electric transmission build-out is stirring enough anger in small towns that some longtime conservatives are reportedly considering voting for a Democrat.

The fight is bigger than whether somebody likes data centers or thinks power lines ruin the view. It is about who gets the economic upside from enormous new electricity users, who gets the infrastructure running across their communities, and who gets told that all of this is simply the unavoidable price of “progress.” Rural Texans cited concerns ranging from construction and pollution to increasingly tight water and electricity supplies.

Abbott has now directed Texas officials to pause data center grid approvals, but according to E&E News, the move has not brought every unhappy Republican voter back into the fold. Funny how quickly “growth” becomes a political emergency once the people supplying the land, water, wires and votes decide they would like a word.

The Bullet Point Brief

  • Data centers have discovered electricity is not summoned by PowerPoint. These enormous projects need enormous amounts of power, and delivering it means real infrastructure in real communities occupied by real people who were apparently not consulted by the algorithm.
  • Texas is contemplating a $33 billion transmission build-out. Rural voters are looking at the proposed power lines and asking a question politicians should have asked much earlier: Who exactly is carrying the burden for all this celebrated economic development?
  • The backlash has become political. E&E News says Abbott is losing support in small towns, with some longtime conservatives even considering a Democratic vote in November. That is not a subtle warning light on the dashboard.
  • The complaints are not merely aesthetic. Residents are raising concerns about construction, pollution, rural identity, water supplies and electricity supplies. In other words, this is considerably more complicated than telling everyone to admire the shiny new technology and please ignore the transmission corridor.
  • Abbott finally hit the pause button. His August directive stopping data center grid approvals has not satisfied everyone, which is what happens when government waits until the villagers are carrying pitchforks before discovering the value of public skepticism.

My Bottom Line

I am not anti-data center. I am not anti-growth. I am certainly not anti-electricity. What I am against is the increasingly fashionable idea that anything branded as technological progress automatically gets first dibs on the grid, the infrastructure and the patience of everybody unfortunate enough to live between Point A and Point B.

Economic development is supposed to improve the lives of the people who already live somewhere, not turn them into involuntary supporting actors in somebody else’s investment presentation. If giant corporations need giant quantities of electricity and giant transmission projects to make their business models work, then politicians ought to be brutally clear about the costs, the land-use consequences and who is expected to pay them. “Trust us, it’s growth” is not an infrastructure policy.

And politically, Abbott owns the response. E&E News reports that rural frustration is now serious enough to threaten support among voters a Republican governor should normally have locked down. You do not get to spend years celebrating growth and then act bewildered when the people underneath the wires ask where their part of the bargain went.

Colorado should pay attention, without pretending Texas and Colorado are identical. Whenever massive new electricity demand gets wrapped in the warm blanket of “progress,” regular communities should start asking hard questions immediately. Who benefits? Who pays? Who gives up the land? Who gets the new infrastructure? And who gets told to shut up because the future has arrived? Progress may be inevitable. Getting steamrolled by it is not.

Source: E&E News Articles

Now It's Your Turn...