Texas Pauses Data Centers!
Austin, US, Aug 3 (EFE).-
Texas temporarily suspended the approval of new data center connections on Monday, amid growing public opposition to their rapid expansion.
The state’s governor, Greg Abbott, ordered the companies that control the state’s power grid to audit all data centers currently in the process of connecting to the grid and to request that they provide information on the tax benefits they will receive, their electricity and water usage, and the measures to reduce the impact on local communities.
The expansion of these facilities has received the backing of President Donald Trump’s administration, which views these projects as essential to maintaining the US’ technological edge and national security.
However, in a state plagued by droughts and a fragile power grid, the construction of data centers has generated increasing animosity among the population.
Nearly 56% of Texans today oppose the construction of data centers, according to a survey published in late July by the University of Texas.
However, as Abbott explained, 90% of the new connection requests that ERCOT, the operator of Texas’s power grid, has received are from data centers.
These connection requests amount to 474 gigawatts, “more than five times Texas’ record peak electricity demand,” the governor noted in a letter to ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), the regulatory body.
“That unprecedented load growth could endanger the reliability and stability of the Texas electric grid,” Abbott added.
In the letter, the governor also complained that many data centers did not respond to a survey that the PUCT sent to data center companies earlier this year requesting information on their water and electricity consumption.
According to several analyses by the technology industry, Texas could become the world’s largest data center market by 2030, surpassing Virginia, thanks to its vast land area and fewer regulations on the private sector.
Billions of dollars have been poured into massive artificial intelligence farms, including the Stargate project, funded by OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle, and Project Matador, which is expected to be the world’s largest data center.
However, as the midterm elections approach, in which the Republican Party seeks to retain its majorities in both houses of Congress, polls have revealed that the construction of data centers is unpopular across the political spectrum, although opposition is more pronounced among Democratic voters.
In Texas, Abbott, a close ally of Trump, is seeking reelection for a fourth term as governor, an unprecedented feat in the state.
In the race for a seat in the US Senate, Republican Ken Paxton faces an unusually close contest against Democrat James Talarico, who, if victorious, would break a streak of more than three decades without a Democrat winning a statewide election in Texas. EFEaaca/mcd
According to a poll published by the conservative network Fox News last week, 70% of Americans oppose the construction of data centers in their neighborhood or community.
