{"id":305376,"date":"2026-05-23T01:35:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T01:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/305376\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T01:35:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T01:35:19","slug":"el-paso-city-council-to-consider-halting-incentives-for-future-hyperscale-data-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/305376\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso City Council to consider halting incentives for future \u2018hyperscale\u2019 data centers"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM<\/a>) \u2013\u00a0Following rising community concerns regarding the potential strain on local utilities, El Paso City leaders might soon pump the brakes on bringing massive data centers to the Borderland.<\/p>\n

During their meeting scheduled for Tuesday, May 26, the El Paso City Council will consider a new policy that would stop the City from actively recruiting or incentivizing \u201chyperscale\u201d data centers. The agenda item cites growing concerns that these massive facilities do not align with El Paso\u2019s long-term goals for sustainability and infrastructure resilience.<\/p>\n

If the proposed policy is passed, future mega-centers would no longer receive tax breaks, permit fee waivers, or economic development grants. The resolution would also direct the city manager to develop a comprehensive \u201cdata center policy framework\u201d for the council to review in the future.<\/p>\n

The proposed policy shift comes on the heels of a County Commissioners Court meeting where utility officials answered questions about the potential impact these facilities could have on local resources.<\/p>\n

Will data centers drain El Paso\u2019s resources? Utilities present long-term plans <\/a><\/p>\n

While El Paso Water President and CEO John Balliew assured commissioners that the infrastructure is already in place to support the incoming Meta data center in Northeast El Paso, he cautioned against attracting too many similar projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the supply to do Meta at that particular location,\u201d Balliew said. \u201cWe can\u2019t do a lot of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

When pressed by County Commissioner Jackie Butler to define what \u201ca lot\u201d meant, Balliew responded that adding 10 data centers within El Paso would push the City past its limits. He said that at Meta\u2019s projected consumption rate, 10 facilities would equal 20 million gallons of water used every single day.<\/p>\n

Balliew also specifically warned that adding mega-centers to the Lower Valley Water District would severely strain that system. He noted that residential use in the area is already surging, and industrial users would only further stretch a water supply that already struggles during droughts.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThis slide here is referencing the Lower Valley water system. Large industrial users such as data centers in the Lower Valley water system could significantly increase the water demand and alter the contract assumption,\u201d Balliew told commissioners.<\/p>\n

While the City\u2019s proposed policy aims to limit future development, some local advocates say the plan doesn\u2019t go far enough to address the deals already in motion.<\/p>\n

Veronica Carbajal, an organizer with the Sembrando Esperanza Coalition, voiced her frustration over the initial agreements made with the tech giant Meta.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Meta was invited to come to El Paso, there were no limits on the table. To the contrary, they were given a very favorable water contract and tax incentives,\u201d Carbajal said. \u201cTo now see people apologizing for their votes on Meta and trying to set limits to future data centers is very promising, but also a little too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carbajal stated that her coalition wants City, County, and utility officials to do everything in their power to back out of current contracts with Meta before operations officially begin. Furthermore, the coalition is demanding the City commit to halting any future land sales or leases to data center developers.<\/p>\n

City Council will discuss the proposed policy at their next meeting at 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 26.<\/p>\n

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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) \u2013\u00a0Following rising community concerns regarding the potential strain on local utilities, El Paso City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4519,51285,16809,5304,138,8178,140,139,46703,27],"class_list":["post-305376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-city-council","tag-community-concerns","tag-county-commissioners-court","tag-data-centers","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-city","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-john-balliew","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305376","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=305376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305376\/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=305376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}