There seem to be very few issues that Republicans and Democrats can agree on these days, but disdain for data centers sure is one of them.
On Monday, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott halted all new data center construction in the Lone Star State, pending "a comprehensive verification and audit" of all new data center projects hoping to connect to the state's power grid. As E&E News reports, the order will require prospective data centers to give "information about their proposed water use, tax breaks they receive, what cooling technologies they're using and who owns the projects" to the Public Utility Commission (PUC) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)—which oversees about 90 percent of the state's grid.
