{"id":302815,"date":"2026-05-21T10:57:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T10:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/302815\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T10:57:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T10:57:40","slug":"el-paso-city-rep-proposes-policy-against-pursuing-data-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/302815\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso City Rep. proposes policy against pursuing data centers"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM<\/a>) \u2014 An El Paso city representative who initially voted to approve an incentive agreement that paved the way for a META data center in Northeast El Paso is now proposing a policy that would prevent the city from pursuing another data center project.<\/p>\n

Chris Canales, who represents District 8 in West, Central, South-Central and Downtown El Paso, announced Tuesday, May 19, on social media that he is launching a proposal titled \u201cPolicy Direction to Not Pursue Data Centers<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The proposal is listed as an agenda item for City Council\u2019s meeting on Tuesday, May 26.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know much more now than we did even a few years ago about the massive electricity, water, and infrastructure demands associated with large, AI-supporting data center facilities. As a desert community, we have to think carefully about what kinds of growth align with our long-term future. In my opinion, hyperscale data centers aren\u2019t the right fit for the Borderland,\u201d Canales said in the post.<\/p>\n

According to a social media post, the proposal, if adopted, will serve as the general policy for future discussions and actions regarding the development of a hyperscale data center. The policy states that such a center should \u201cnot be actively recruited, pursued, or incentivized,\u201d which does not align with the City\u2019s long-term sustainability and infrastructure goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat hyperscale data center shall not be considered for tax abatements, rebates, permit fee waivers, public financing assistance, economic development grants or similar economic development tools,\u201d the post read in part.<\/p>\n

The policy will also direct the City Manager to continue the ongoing development of a future-focused Data Center Policy Framework for consideration by City Council.<\/p>\n

As KTSM previously reported, the City held multiple community meetings for public input on the policy framework. The framework would be used to evaluate future long-term projects and how they would affect residents, resources, economic development and other impacts associated with data centers.<\/p>\n

City expands data center meeting access with online survey <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cCity Council directed staff to develop a proposed Data Center Policy Framework shaped by community input and informed by long-term impacts on infrastructure and utilities,\u201d City Manager Dionne Mack said. \u201cThat is the work before us. Council did not direct staff to cancel the existing Meta 380 agreement. Our role is to engage the public, evaluate the facts, and return to Council with recommendations that reflect the community\u2019s priorities and help guide future decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many residents in previous community meetings have spoken against the data center and many felt that their questions were not answered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to know more about what data centers are all about and how they could affect our water, our electricity and things like that,\u201d one resident said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEl Pasoans are increasingly asking broader questions about what kind of growth we want to encourage as a community. Not every project that brings investment is automatically the right fit for a desert city facing long-term challenges around water, energy, infrastructure and climate resilience,\u201d Canales said in the post. \u201cWe know much more now than we did just a few years ago about the scale of the resource demands associated with hyperscale data centers supporting AI, particularly their impacts on electricity demand, water consumption and supporting infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy proposal is about setting a clear direction for the future and recognizing that while these large data centers can generate substantial tax revenue to fund public services, they also come with very real tradeoffs that we have to take seriously as we decide what our future economy should look like,\u201d Canales said.<\/p>\n

Canales also encourages residents to speak at the next City Council meeting about the proposed policy, by signing up<\/a> to speak in person or sending a written comment to CityClerk@elpasotexas.gov<\/a> with the subject \u201cItem #22.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) \u2014 An El Paso city representative who initially voted to approve an incentive agreement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[20162,4519,5421,8443,138,140,139],"class_list":["post-302815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-chris-canales","tag-city-council","tag-data-center","tag-downtown-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}