{"id":408856,"date":"2026-08-17T12:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T12:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/408856\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T12:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T12:30:07","slug":"texas-lawmakers-to-review-data-centers-impact-after-abbott-pauses-grid-hookups-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/408856\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas lawmakers to review data centers\u2019 impact after Abbott pauses grid hookups"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 State lawmakers are set to take a closer look Wednesday at how the rapid growth of data centers is affecting Texans, following Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s decision<\/a> earlier this month to pause approvals for new data centers seeking to connect to the state\u2019s power grid.<\/p>\n

The Texas House meeting will examine how data center expansion is impacting the state\u2019s economy, workforce and the reliability of the power grid. Lawmakers also plan to review how local communities\u2019 resources could be affected.<\/p>\n

The controversy over data centers has intensified in Texas, where there are more than 530 facilities statewide. Abbott paused approvals for data centers trying to connect to the state\u2019s power grid, citing reliability concerns, after months of heated debate in Texas and across the U.S. about the environmental and economic impacts of the facilities on local communities.<\/p>\n

Abbott is also requiring companies to disclose their facilities\u2019 power and water use, cooling options and company ownership. Some Austin residents voiced support for more oversight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I think it’s reasonable to have you know regulations around how they get their power and what water they consume,\u201d said Greg Milliken, an Austinite.<\/p>\n

Milliken also said, \u201cThe notion that you would be required to provide your own power as part of the infrastructure, building a data center, makes a lot of sense to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbott\u2019s actions have drawn criticism from President Donald Trump, who said, \u201cI think it’s a mistake. I\u2019m not taking position. I just think a mistake because there’s a lot of communities that want it. When a community wants it, it means a lot of money is going to come into that community,” in an interview with Punchbowl News.<\/a><\/p>\n

Abbott has said at least two dozen companies \u2014 including Amazon, Google and Microsoft \u2014 have agreed to comply with his orders.<\/p>\n

As lawmakers weigh the economic benefits of data center growth, they are also expected to consider the pressure the facilities could put on the state\u2019s workforce, communities and power grid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we should take help of experts who might be researching about this topic get the stats rightly done, and then based on that, take the decisions,\u201d said Gaurev Garg, an Austinite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 State lawmakers are set to take a closer look Wednesday at how the rapid growth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-408856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408856","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=408856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}