Greg Abbott can\u2019t hide from wanting to make Texas the epicenter of AI data centers<\/p>\n
Austin, TX \u2013 Texans from across the state showed up to fight back against Greg Abbott\u2019s data center invasion at yesterday\u2019s Texas Senate Finance Committee briefing, which revealed that the true scale of the data center builds remains unknown and that Greg Abbott has the power to end the data center madness today. During the hearing, the Texas Comptroller\u2019s office disclosed 138 tax-exempt facilities<\/a> and a severe lack of oversight and auditing that goes into these facilities being built.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYesterday\u2019s Senate Finance briefing exposed Greg Abbott\u2019s desperate attempt to hide his commitment to making \u2018Texas the AI data epicenter of the world.\u2019\u201d said Gina Hinojosa. \u201cTexans are being kept in the dark about these facilities that are popping up in their communities all across the state until it\u2019s too late and foreign corporations are already guzzling up their water and electricity without oversight. That\u2019s why I called on Abbott to put a moratorium on data centers until we can have a legislative session that implements real accountability and puts Texans first.\u201d<\/p>\n During the hearing, the Comptroller revealed that zero data centers sought exemptions between 2014 and 2020. Now, 59 have been certified under Abbott in 2026 alone<\/a> \u2013 and the statewide office doesn\u2019t have the authority in statute to decline to do the certification \u2013 unless Abbott were to call a special legislative session and create real parameters. Additionally, the Comptroller rejected the idea of data centers as major job creators.<\/p>\n The richest men in the world own these data centers; they should pay for themselves. As Val Verde Rancher Marilee Hodge Keller put it during the public comment section, \u201cIt\u2019s a windfall, and it discounts the two things we can least afford to give away: our water and our electricity.\u201d<\/p>\n