Texas Governor Suddenly Turns on Data Centers as Backlash Grows - Futurism

That's a sharp turn from just a few months ago. In November, Abbott was calling Texas the "epicenter of AI development" and offering major sales tax exemptions to attract the industry. Google announced a $40 billion investment in Texas around that time, and Abbott was openly proud of it.

Now he's distancing himself from the same facilities he was courting. The shift reflects growing bipartisan frustration with data centers across the country, not just in states that typically push back on big tech. For Texans, that frustration has real stakes. Data centers draw enormous amounts of electricity, and anyone who lived through the 2021 grid failure knows how thin the margin gets when demand spikes.

For people here in Lubbock, where summer heat already pushes the grid hard, more large-scale power draws in Texas are not an abstract concern. The South Plains relies on the same stressed infrastructure that serves the rest of the state.