{"id":345488,"date":"2026-06-22T11:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T11:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/345488\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T11:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T11:54:08","slug":"city-council-seeks-to-support-texas-governor-abbott-in-protecting-utility-ratepayers-from-datacenters-and-create-an-agreement-with-meta-to-benefit-el-paso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/345488\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council Seeks to Support Texas Governor Abbott in Protecting Utility Ratepayers from Datacenters and Create an Agreement with META to Benefit El Paso"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Tx., June 22, 2026: The El Paso City Council will be discussing two items during tomorrow\u2019s city council meeting regarding datacenters. The first item seeks to amend the city\u2019s state legislative agenda to include support for Texas Governor Greg Abbott\u2019s call for state regulators to ensure that Texas utility ratepayers are protected from rising utility costs due to the datacenters being built in Texas. In a June 10th letter<\/a> to the Public Utility Commission (PUC), Abbott tasked the utility regulator \u201cto ensure everyday Texans are not burdened\u201d by the datacenters.<\/p>\n

\"Click<\/a><\/p>\n

The item was put on tomorrow\u2019s agenda by Art Fierro, Alejandra Ch\u00e1vez and Ivan Ni\u00f1o. The three, who are facing reelection campaigns in November, voted last week against opening discussions with META over the datacenter it is building in Northeast El Paso.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s State Legislative Agenda for the 90th Session outlines the city\u2019s priorities for the legislative session that begins in January. The agenda, adopted in February, asks the city\u2019s state elected officials to \u201csupport legislation that \u201cstrengthens\u201d the \u201cCity\u2019s Retirement Systems\u201d and opposes legislation that \u201cresults in the loss of City\u2019s revenues or negatively impacts the City\u2019s authority to generate revenues,\u201d among several other priorities. Among the other priorities includes funds for roads, the airport, funding for water-related infrastructure, public safety and other \u201ccore municipal services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Included among the requests is a $25 million appropriation request for the Deck Plaza, which would include other funds from local, state and federal sources. The city also wants the state senate to evaluate datacenters and water supplies, according to the agenda adopted by the city in February.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow\u2019s discussion in support of Abbott\u2019s call for protecting ratepayers from the costs associated with datacenters, the item, if approved tomorrow, will direct the city manager and the city attorney to ensure that El Paso Electric<\/a> is included in Abbott\u2019s directive.<\/p>\n

El Paso Electric is not part of<\/a> The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) which encompasses about 75% of the electrical power grid in Texas. Abbott\u2019s letter mentioned ERCOT and did not include El Paso\u2019s electric utility, although the local utility is also regulated by the PUC, like ERCOT.<\/p>\n

Community Benefits Agreement<\/p>\n

The second item related to datacenters that the city council will be discussing tomorrow is a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) between the city and META. A CBA is a contract between a developer and community organizations. It usually outlines specific amenities and investments that a developer agrees to, to ensure that local residents benefit from the development. A CBA is a private contract that can hold the developer accountable to the community.<\/p>\n

The key priorities outlined in the agenda item include addressing \u201cenvironmental protections, financial commitments, utility infrastructure improvements, ratepayer protection, workforce development initiatives, support for the Advanced Training Center, and community accountability measures, including safeguards related to water and electric utility resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposed agreement would include a provision for filling 300 proposed jobs for the datacenter by El Pasoans. The agenda item calls for the city manager to continue public discussions about META\u2019s El Paso datacenter facilitated by an independent moderator that will include participants like \u201cthe Mayor, the City Attorney, representatives from El Paso Water, El Paso Electric, the El Paso Chamber, GEPAR, Meta Platforms, Inc., a resident representative, and an environmental advocate, to assist in the development of the final Community Benefits Agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should the city council approve the item, a draft agreement will be presented to the council in 45 days.<\/p>\n

City officials want META to commit to improve water service that would guarantee the datacenter\u2019s water long-term water needs while improving leaving more potable water in the region\u2019s aquifers for residents. Officials also want META to assist in \u201cfunding sewer infrastructure for 214 homes located approximately one mile from the data center.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also want META to commit to solar energy and battery storage to help reduce pollution and fund xeriscaping projects to help with air pollution in the area.<\/p>\n

The city also seeks to protect utility ratepayers through the CBA and ensure META commits to 300 permanent jobs, instead of the 50 included in the 380 Agreement. The jobs should be prioritized for El Pasoans, according to the agenda item. They also want META to commit to establishing an advanced training center in partnership with Workforce Solutions and El Paso Community College (EPCC).<\/p>\n

This item was put on the city council\u2019s agenda for tomorrow by city representatives Cynthia Boyar Trejo and Deanna Maldonado-Rocha. Neither face reelection in November, but Boyar Trejo is facing a recall<\/a> launched against her for recent vote on META.<\/p>\n

Two community groups; Amanecer People\u2019s Project and Sembrando Esperanza have emerged as the two leading groups<\/a> opposing META\u2019s datacenter.<\/p>\n

Like Us and Follow Us On Our Social Media!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Tx., June 22, 2026: The El Paso City Council will be discussing two items during tomorrow\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[117575,20160,118177,20161,123238,56403,12696,27640,94103,138,123239,140,139,392,20166,118742,110341,123240,24987],"class_list":["post-345488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-380-agreement","tag-alejandra-chavez","tag-amanecer-peoples-project","tag-art-fierro","tag-community-benefits-agreement-cba","tag-cynthia-boyar-trejo","tag-datacenters","tag-deanna-maldonado-rocha","tag-deck-plaza","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-community-college-epcc","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-greg-abbott","tag-ivan-nino","tag-public-utility-commission-puc","tag-sembrando-esperanza","tag-the-electric-reliability-council-of-texas-ercot","tag-workforce-solutions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345488","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=345488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}