AUSTIN, Texas (KCBD) – Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller on Tuesday urged Governor Greg Abbott to call a special legislative session to address the rapid growth of large-scale data centers, saying the state could miss its chance to curb projects that he argues threaten rural communities, water supplies and the electric grid.<\/p>\n
Miller said waiting until the Legislature\u2019s regular session begins in January could be too late, citing reports that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas could start approving another round of major data-center projects \u2014 known as \u201cBatch Zero\u201d \u2014 as early as next spring.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe clock is ticking,\u201d Miller said in a statement. \u201cEvery day we wait, more projects move closer to becoming permanent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miller said Abbott has recently acknowledged concerns about the expansion but argued that immediate action is needed to prevent projects from being locked in under current rules. He questioned whether the governor is committed to slowing development or giving companies time to move forward before lawmakers can act.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the Governor truly wants stronger safeguards, there\u2019s only one way to remove any doubt: call a Special Session now,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n
Miller said Texas can remain a leader in technology while protecting farmland and natural resources. He said farmers and ranchers should not have to compete with major corporations for water and electricity.<\/p>\n
Abbott\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas (KCBD) – Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller on Tuesday urged Governor Greg Abbott to call a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3258,5304,3413,392,66,251,168,17246,2879,2630,27,129323,29,28],"class_list":["post-364840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-abbott","tag-data-centers","tag-ercot","tag-greg-abbott","tag-local","tag-local-news","tag-lubbock","tag-miller","tag-sid-miller","tag-state-news","tag-texas","tag-texas-ag-commissioner","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364840","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=364840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}