PROGRESSIVE VIEWS With our governor heading the charge, Texas plans to lead the nation in building data centers and the heavily polluting gas turbine power plants they require, according to a recent study by the Environmental Integrity Project.

The study states that these plants "plan to emit tons of greenhouse gases and air pollution." The Texas Public Utilities Commission recently requested information from data center companies on how much water and energy they plan to use.

But "at a legislative hearing in late June, legislators were told less than a third of the companies surveyed responded, according to the Texas Tribune. Data centers are taking advantage of Texas' weak regulatory structure to vastly expand their plans. OpenAI's Stargate is building a massive data center near Abilene. According to a story by Floodlight/Texas Tribune, "On paper, Stargate's Abilene campus started out small, but through a permitting loophole identified by Floodlight, it was able to quietly construct massive power sources with little-to-no public notice.