After relentless pressure from concerned citizens and grassroots activists, Harlingen, Texas, became the first city in the state to introduce a 120-day moratorium, or a temporary pause on the consideration of data centers, in order to study the potential impacts on local water resources, the power supply, and the environment before making any further decisions on the construction of the energy-hungry projects.
The moratorium was seen by some as a big win in a tech-friendly state that already hosts an estimated 100 data centers with dozens more already planned, and where it is projected to become one of the largest data center markets by 2030.
On the other end of the Harlingen data center moratorium is Eneus Energy, a UK-based company that is planning a 1,785-acre data center east of Valley International Airport. Eneus Energy claims that the data center will bring 14 billion dollars in capital investment to Cameron County, around 1000 jobs, and 9 billion dollars in economic impact, although they clarify that these are long-term projections through 2045 based on an independent study and are merely estimates, and “not guarantees of future outcomes.”
Eneus Energy is currently embroiled in a lawsuit against Cameron County and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to prevent the release of records about the proposed 2-gigawatt data center.
The Texas Attorney General is claiming certain information about the data center should be released, including project timelines, water impacts and power demands to the local grid, incentives and land ownership deals, confidentiality agreements and communications with public officials.
Eneus is pursuing the lawsuit, claiming that the release of this information would give competitors an unfair advantage.
For The People Alliance
As the Rio Grande Valley continues to attract multiple multi-billion-dollar projects, many concerned citizens increasingly demand to hold conversations with local government officials that have greenlit most of the projects with little to no community input.
“People are getting more laser-focused on their local commission meetings. Legitimate changes that can affect your livelihood happen there on a bi-weekly basis,” says Amani Newman, the 22-year-old social media influencer and co-founder of the For The People Alliance (FTPA) – a quickly growing civic education initiative that aims to promote transparency and accountability in local government in the Rio Grande Valley.
The FTPA is not associated with any political organization, instead aiming to highlight the importance of local politics and the politicians who are a part of a financially motivated “compadre system,” as Newman puts it — where politicians give favors, appointments, and contracts based on personal relationships rather than merit.
“Local activism is going to help disrupt institutional systems that can silence us and keep us in the dark,” says Newman.
As a grassroots political movement, the FTPA takes a pragmatic approach to the seemingly unstoppable force of data centers and argues that moratoriums should be implemented by any community that is actively considering construction of a center, as well as those communities that are so far uninvolved in the conversation.
The moratorium serves as the first step towards considering a ban, as there must be proper justification for implementing such a drastic measure. A moratorium thus opens the door for a ban to be considered down the line.
An added benefit of a moratorium on all data center activity is the initiation of conversation among the community. The pause allows residents a chance to determine the project’s consequences for local water resources and the electric grid, the financial costs local residents will incur due to rising utility rates, whether the project complies with local zoning laws, and to conduct an environmental study.
Newman and the FTPA have traveled across the Rio Grande Valley and been in contact with city leadership from Laredo to Rio Hondo, and with the help of social media algorithms, have successfully become a local hit on Instagram and Facebook, where videos of Newman speaking at the Harlingen City Commission meetings have recently gone viral.
Within a few months of its founding, the FTPA has garnered tens of millions of views on Instagram alone, averaging about 1 million per month. Newman is convinced that the FTPA is one of the fastest-growing political movements in the RGV, with thousands of followers to boot.
“We have been able to resonate with a younger audience. We’ve been the most successful with them.”
Despite popular support for moratoriums, the Valley’s largest cities remain unwavering in their pursuit of business opportunities from outsiders.
“I’ve spoken with Laredo’s commissioners as well as Rio Hondo’s, and they seem receptive so far. I think McAllen and Brownsville are very money motivated, and not willing to work with me currently.”
Newman and the FTPA have a shared goal of introducing data center moratoriums across the Rio Grande Valley, as he and his organization continue to pack city commission meetings across South Texas in an attempt to stifle the billion-dollar disruption.
Newman clarifies that even if a city is not interested in engaging with anti-data-center discourse, a moratorium is a way to help its citizens understand the full benefits that outside corporations are promising to deliver if they move into the city. “Even if you are for the data centers, can we at least know what the benefits are?”
The expectations of economic growth stemming from the arrival of billion-dollar corporations such as Eneus Energy should be taken with a grain of salt, according to Newman, as he has witnessed promises of data centers’ use of wastewater turn into drafted contracts for local municipalities seeking the rights to use potable water. As a result of these demands, there are concerns that corporations might coerce local officials into supporting a plan that diverts precious water resources to data centers in an area already prone to drought.
Newman emphasizes that the FTPA will continue to pack city commission meetings across the RGV and shine a social media spotlight on local injustices.
With the Harlingen moratorium becoming the vanguard for data center moratoriums across the state, Newman claims that the hardest part is done and hopes to replicate his organization’s success across other South Texas cities.
“The hardest part was taking the first step, but now that we proved that this could be done, other cities can use Harlingen as a framework, which I’m really excited for.”
As of August 5, growing levels of discontent over the approval of data centers across Texas have finally reached the governor’s office, following Greg Abbott’s statewide audit of all planned data centers in Texas. Going forward, all planned centers must meet specific requirements to be approved for construction, including the tax breaks they will receive, power use and generation, water use and cooling operations, efforts to reduce impacts on local communities, and facility ownership. If planned facilities fail to provide this information, they will be denied access to the Texas Energy Grid (ERCOT). The total amount of planned data centers is equal to 474 gigawatts of electricity, or five times the record amount that ERCOT has had a demand for.
