RELEASE: Texas Senate Hearing Reveals Abbott’s Power to Defend Data Center Madness

Greg Abbott can’t hide from wanting to make Texas the epicenter of AI data centers

Austin, TX – Texans from across the state showed up to fight back against Greg Abbott’s data center invasion at yesterday’s 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’s office disclosed 138 tax-exempt facilities and a severe lack of oversight and auditing that goes into these facilities being built. 

“Yesterday’s Senate Finance briefing exposed Greg Abbott’s desperate attempt to hide his commitment to making ‘Texas the AI data epicenter of the world.’” said Gina Hinojosa. “Texans are being kept in the dark about these facilities that are popping up in their communities all across the state until it’s too late and foreign corporations are already guzzling up their water and electricity without oversight. That’s 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.”

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 – and the statewide office doesn’t have the authority in statute to decline to do the certification – 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.

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, “It’s a windfall, and it discounts the two things we can least afford to give away: our water and our electricity.”

Last week, Hinojosa held a press conference alongside Texans from El Paso, Lubbock, Granbury, and Red Oak to outline her data center priorities and call on Abbott to sign an emergency executive order putting a moratorium on data centers until the legislature meets to give Texans a seat at the table.

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