El Paso officials say canceling Meta data center agreement could cost taxpayers millions<\/a><\/p>\nEscobar argued that the additional energy demand could worsen air quality in a region already facing environmental challenges. She also pointed to El Paso\u2019s rising temperatures, noting that the city is among the fastest-warming communities in the United States.<\/p>\n
Water usage was another major concern raised by Escobar. She said residents in the drought-prone region have long adopted conservation measures, including limiting outdoor watering and replacing traditional lawns with drought-resistant landscaping. She questioned whether those efforts could be undermined by large data centers requiring substantial amounts of water for cooling systems.<\/p>\n
The congresswoman also cited public opposition to data center construction, referencing a Gallup poll that she said found 71% of Americans oppose the development of AI data centers in their local communities.<\/p>\n
A significant portion of Escobar\u2019s remarks focused on a proposed Environmental Protection Agency revision to the New Source Review permitting process. According to Escobar, the proposal would change when facilities are considered to have begun construction, allowing developers to build portions of projects before obtaining Clean Air Act permits for emissions-producing equipment.<\/p>\n
She argued that the change could allow data center projects powered by gas generators to move forward without the public comment periods typically associated with air permitting reviews.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat this means is that a data center that relies on gas polluting generators like those in my community, they’d be able to begin millions of dollars worth of construction without permits and, more importantly, without the public comment period that these permits require,\u201d Escobar said.<\/p>\n
Escobar also singled out Meta, one of the companies developing a data center in the El Paso area. She said she has repeatedly invited company representatives to participate in a community town hall to address residents\u2019 questions about the project, but that the company has declined to attend.<\/p>\n
\u201cConstituents have real questions and they deserve answers,\u201d Escobar said. \u201cMeta has refused to engage with my community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The congresswoman said local residents should have a voice in decisions involving major developments that could affect natural resources and community infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot let these big corporations have access to our natural resources without the public being involved, without there being a process,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Escobar said her amendment was intended to preserve opportunities for public review and comment before construction begins on major data center projects. <\/p>\n
Despite her arguments, the proposal failed to advance during the committee markup. <\/p>\n
Sign up<\/a> to receive the top interesting stories from in and around our community once daily in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar renewed her criticism of large-scale data center development during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-323703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-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\/323703","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=323703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}