ICYMI: Top Abbott Donors Cash In On The Data Center Boom He Claims To Oppose

Abbott’s campaign is funded by the expanding data center market he invited to Texas

Austin, TX – Despite trying to change his tune on data centers, new reporting from the Houston Chronicle proves that Greg Abbott continues to welcome their developer’s political donations. In his recent campaign filing, Abbott accepted millions of dollars in campaign contributions from Energy Transfer CEO Kelcy Warren, who positions himself as the future power supplier for data centers, and Harlan Crow, who has similarly unveiled plans to launch a data center of his own. It is clear that Abbott will allow the richest men to open hundreds of data centers while decimating the communities and livelihoods of the Texans paying for the Greg Abbott Corruption Tax. 

While Hinojosa has called out the harm of foreign-owned data centers encroaching on Texas’ rural communities, Abbott is running from his own record of signing the country’s most generous data center giveaway “as he eyes reelection this fall.”

Meanwhile, this week, The San Antonio Current found that “A total of 68 data centers are currently operating or in the planning stage within a 50-mile radius of San Antonio,” with those reporting energy usage requiring a combined 2,896 megawatts—enough to power up to 3 million homes. The Austin American-Statesman reported that while Texas is planned to become the top AI data center market in the world, rural communities and farmers are fearing what’s next. Throughout her campaign, Hinojosa has made it clear: data centers are owned by the richest men in the world, and they should pay for themselves.

Read more below.

Houston Chronicle: Greg Abbott says he’s ‘pushing back’ on data centers. His biggest donors are cashing in on them

  • Several of the Republican governor’s most generous financial backers are increasingly investing in the boom that has voters in deep-red rural parts of the state up in arms […] They include real estate titan Ed Roski, Jr., who gave $1 million in April, and energy executive Kelcy Warren, who gave $500,000 in June. 
  • The governor also took $500,000 donations this year from Rhett Bennett of Black Mountain, an energy company building data centers across Texas, and Elon Musk, the tech titan and AI developer who is pushing to send data centers to space.
  • His campaign later clarified he does not want a prohibition, but rather was alluding to his previous call for lawmakers to establish “best practices such as setbacks, noise-reduction technology, and other measures that take into account the concerns of neighbors.” 
  • Energy Transfer, the pipeline company founded by Warren, recently rolled out a series of deals to provide natural gas to data centers across the state, including Fermi America’s AI campus in Amarillo, two Oracle sites and Cloudburst’s campus near San Marcos.
  • Majestic Realty, the California-based realty firm founded by Roski, leases Texas warehouses to Google, which is investing billions in data centers in the state.
  • Crow Holdings, whose chairman Harlan Crow gave the governor $250,000 in April, announced a deal in January to build a new data center in Dallas that the company’s managing director called a “milestone.”
  • In August, Hunt Energy launched a partnership with Caterpillar, Inc., to provide power to data centers across the country. The first project was in Texas. […] Ray Lee Hunt is a longtime Abbott donor. He gave Abbott’s campaign $125,000 in June.

San Antonio Current: Report: San Antonio data centers will use enough energy to power 3 million homes

  • A total of 68 data centers are currently operating or in the planning stage within a 50-mile radius of San Antonio, according to a database recently collated by the Texas Tribune.
  • More than half of the San Antonio-area facilities listed in the database haven’t reported the amount of energy they require to operate. However, those that did release that information will require a combined 2,896 megawatts, or enough energy to power 2 million to 3 million homes.

Austin American-Statesman: As AI data center boom pushes into rural Texas, farmers fear what comes next

  • An inviting regulatory climate, support from state lawmakers and open access to land have drawn some of the world’s largest companies to build data centers in Texas. Increasingly, they are choosing to plant their resource-intensive industrial complexes in rural communities.
  • Already, Texas is one of the world’s fastest-growing data center markets, with hundreds of facilities in operation, under construction or planned. And tech giants and other toward more of the infrastructure needed to meet rising demand for artificial intelligence.
  • “We must prohibit them from building AI data centers in rural Texas neighborhoods,” Abbott said during an event in Bullard.
  • The statement marked a shift in tone for the governor, who in November praised Google’s $40 billion Texas data center investment. 
  • About 62% of rural voters now oppose data center construction in their communities, according to recent polling from the University of Texas at Austin. […] calling for either a special session or for the issue to become a top legislative priority when lawmakers convene in January. 
  • So far, Abbott has not issued an executive order to slow data center development or called a special session. And because Texas counties lack the zoning authority of cities, many projects have already pushed through application and approval processes and are heading toward construction.

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