By News Staff on Wednesday, August 12, 2026 Illustration by Mariana Ocejo for The Texas Tribune.

Source images: Shelby Tauber, Leila Saidane, and Briana Vargas for The Texas Tribune; Aiden Gonzalez/The Texas Tribune As data center proposals are popping up across Texas, local residents have grown increasingly frustrated by how difficult it can be to get information about the projects that they say threaten to disrupt their communities.

Armies of concerned neighbors have become their own private detectives in search of signs or confirmation about data center plans in lieu of public disclosures, pestering local officials at meetings or in the grocery store and sharing their findings across Facebook groups with thousands of members.