East Texas county judge says state law limits options as residents oppose data center

An East Texas commissioners court meeting was filled with citizens voicing their concerns about a proposed data center Tuesday.

Citizens in Angelina County voiced their concerns about light, sound, air and water pollution concerning a proposed data center outside Lufkin, Texas. The project is proposed by AmpZ Champion Data Center Holdings.

During Tuesday night's meeting, commissioners urged those opposed to contact their elected state officials.

What they're saying:

"We have no authority to do a moratorium or to stop any type of development in the county," County Judge Keith Wright said. "The Texas legislators have consciously limited what we can do, and they've done it on purpose."

Wright pointed to Hill County, Texas, which implemented a moratorium on data center construction last month and was subsequently sued by the developer. Last week, Hill County rescinded the moratorium and implemented a checklist for developers to follow.

Wright warned that taking actions similar to Hill County would lead to heavy costs for the county and that they did not have the authority to stop or slow down data center construction.

"Hill County is the one that passed a moratorium. They've already been sued. They've already withdrew the moratorium," Wright said. "My job and this court's job, is to protect Angelina County, and we don't need to take actions that we know is going to cost the county a lot of money."

Wright shared residents' concerns about data center construction, saying the infrastructure to support multiple data centers in the county just wasn't there.

"At one time, I heard of five different data centers that were proposed for Angelina County. That blows my mind," Wright said.

The current proposed AmpZ facility would be built at a former paper mill site just outside the Lufkin city limits.

In a release, Lufkin city officials said the data center was expected to create 30 full-time jobs when it is completed. City officials said the data center would operate on a closed-loop water system estimated to use 500 gallons of water per day. The water usage isn't expected to impact residential supply.

City officials said the center shouldn't impact customer electric bills.

The center would be located outside the Lufkin city limits, so any tax rebates for the center would have to go through the county. Wright said that's one way the county can limit the data center.

"The only way you can do that is in an agreement where you're either doing a tax abatement, a pilot agreement, a road use agreement," he said. "That is the only way that we can put restrictions on this data center. It's the only option we have."

The other side:

Shelly Tatum, the Democratic candidate for Texas House District 9, said a tax abatement isn't the answer.

"I think it's important that you deny any tax abatements to data centers that want to build in Angelina County, because collecting those property taxes is the only sure benefit that we, the residents of this county, get from the entire operation," she said. "That data center's not going to be operating in 10 years. Technology's developing so quickly that by the time a 10-year tax abatement ran, that facility's going to be as empty as the old paper mill is right now."

Gov. Greg Abbott calls for data center regulation

Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday sent a letter to the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas calling for new regulations on data centers to protect Texans from increased costs from data center development.

What they're saying:

"Data centers must operate in ways that reduce costs for residential electricity customers, do not drain water needed for our communities, and take into consideration the needs of our neighborhoods," Abbott said.

Abbott is calling on PUC to require data centers to fully fund the cost of electric infrastructure for their operations and prevent those costs from going to residential customers.

He's also asking PUC and ERCOT to submit a letter to his office outlining ways to protect residential and small business customers from data center rate hikes.

Abbott is also calling on the state legislature to enact laws concerning data center reporting on electric and water usage, ways to protect communities and find ways for data centers to add to Texas' electric grid as opposed to just increasing demand.

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