{"id":317290,"date":"2026-06-01T08:25:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T08:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/317290\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T08:25:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T08:25:34","slug":"el-paso-rep-speaks-on-proposed-policy-to-end-data-center-incentives-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/317290\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso Rep. speaks on proposed policy to end data center incentives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>EL PASO, Texas (<a data-ylk=\"slk:KTSM;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ktsm.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">KTSM<\/a>) \u2014 El Paso City Representative Chris Canales joined Mike and Tricia Martinez on Second Cup on KTSM+ to discuss ending future data center projects on Friday morning, May 29.<\/p>\n<p>As KTSM previously reported, Canales initially voted to approve an incentive agreement for META data centers in El Paso in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Now, he proposed a policy to stop incentivizing future hyperscale data center projects, which City Council approved.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"slk:El Paso City Council votes to stop recruiting data center projects;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aol.com\/news\/el-paso-city-council-votes-014141348.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0El Paso City Council votes to stop recruiting data center projects\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Canales mentioned that the city has received numerous requests to terminate its agreement with META. However, breaking the agreement would require the city to pay a large amount of money, which could potentially bankrupt it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we thought the project would be in 2023 is not what we see today,\u201d Canales said. \u201cIt\u2019s something way bigger than we anticipated; it\u2019s an incredibly unfortunate situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Canales stated that he believes that the project\u2019s expansion has led to negative impacts.<\/p>\n<p>Data centers are predicted to greatly increase demand for resources such as electricity and water.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"slk:Lawmakers express concerns that data centers will raise electric bills;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ktsm.com\/news\/washington-dc\/lawmakers-express-concerns-that-data-centers-will-raise-electric-bills\/?ipid=promo-link-block2\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0Lawmakers express concerns that data centers will raise electric bills\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have huge concerns about the environmental impact, my background is in that,\u201d Canales said. \u201cI think there are plenty of concerns, really valid concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Canales told KTSM that he earned a degree in sustainable development and has worked in the sustainability and resource management field.<\/p>\n<p>Canales also said that an implementation plan is something he would want to continue working on moving forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s a big thing I would want to keep working on for the future; we\u2019re working on it now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ktsm.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) \u2014 El Paso City Representative Chris Canales joined Mike and Tricia Martinez on Second&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4519,5421,138,113315,140,139,498,113316],"class_list":["post-317290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-city-council","tag-data-center","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-city-representative-chris-canales","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-ktsm","tag-tricia-martinez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317290","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=317290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}