Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article and receive more conversations like this in your inbox each week.
Taylor Goldenstein is an enterprise and investigative reporter at The Texas Tribune covering data center politics. Goldenstein has spent months following data center development – and public opinion about it – in one of the country’s fastest growing data center markets. In May, Goldenstein reported on how Republicans in rural Texas were diverging from party leadership in their views on data centers. Since then, Texas Governor, Republican Greg Abbott, has introduced policies to regulate the facilities. Goldenstein and I spoke in June for a forthcoming edition of our weekly radio program, Yonder Radio. The episode, our first ever special report, is called Power Dynamics: The Rural Data Center Boom. You can find it here.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Julia Tilton, Daily Yonder: Taylor, thanks for being here. You have been covering data centers from your vantage point in Texas. When did you first start looking at this issue?
Taylor Goldenstein: I actually just joined the Tribune in March, but the Tribune has been covering these issues for a long time. I joined and was pretty much immediately put on the data center team. There’s a team of us and we have environmental reporters on this, we have business reporters. It kind of touches all areas of the state, and so we have to fan out.
I’m more on the political angle, but obviously you can’t report on this without understanding the mechanics. So I’ve been learning a lot about energy saving methods and water saving methods and all of that.
DY: I find that this topic is really the convergence of a lot of different kinds of issues from water and power to politics, which of course is your focus. I’m curious, in your coverage, have you picked up on any impetus for data centers coming to the state? Why are data centers coming to Texas?
TG: I think we’re seeing this all over the country, but Texas is getting many more requests, it seems, because of a few things. One of them is the lack of strict regulations. So that’s a draw for a lot of folks. Comparatively, it’s faster and easier to build here. In addition, I think that there may have been some foresight that the political leadership would be a little bit more supportive. I think that’s still playing out, to see whether that turns out to be the case. But that could have been part of the calculation. And then I also should note here that we’re entering into a new generation of data centers. So there already was a pretty big footprint of the first-generation or older generation data centers, which I’m sure calculates into the decision. And then just land availability. We just are a huge state and we have a lot of land opportunities for these companies.
DY: On the political side, you write about how Texas leaders are positioning the state as a hub for data center and AI development. What does that reality look like on the ground? Is there a general support among Texans for that vision that we’re seeing Texas leaders lay out?
TG: So far, and this plays out nationally too, the national polling shows that most people do not want to live near a data center, [that they] oppose data centers. That is the case here in Texas too. We’ve had some local polling done, there was one poll out of Houston that showed most people used AI, but also most people didn’t want to live near a data center. Obviously a poll can’t get into all those reasons why, but the reporting kind of fills it in.
DY: How do rural Texans feel about data centers?
TG: I would say [this opposition] is not limited to rural constituents, but that is what our reporting has shown. It’s the area where the most data centers are going in Texas, the most proposed data centers, more than half, and the general response to this has been fear and concern over water availability, power availability, whether this will push up power rates for residents in these areas. And, just a push for more transparency. We mentioned the lack of regulations. The first people that that’s going to touch are the local residents. There may be no paperwork at the county level because the counties don’t have zoning authority. So when they are finding out about it, to them it feels late in the process, and there’s very little they can do to push back.
DY: In May, you reported this feature story where you dug into different community concerns around data center development in rural and conservative Texas counties. How did this piece come about?
TG: The story came up because we were noticing this trend amongst lawmakers with this issue. It’s kind of hard to tell right now where everyone is at, but the people who have been vocal seem to be the lawmakers who represent rural communities. And they have been speaking out in varying ways, going from calling for a pause on all development, to just asking for a special session to address some of these concerns. So we were hearing that from the rural side, and hearing not so much from the urban side. If anything, there was an urban lawmaker from the Houston area who was speaking out to try to quash these moratoriums. So we thought it would be relevant to look at, and that’s turned out to be very true.
DY: Did anything surprise you in speaking to rural community members about their views on data centers?
TG: One of the more surprising things, especially maybe for folks not in Texas, and these trends might exist elsewhere, is that some of these county officials who are Republicans are pushing for more regulatory authority. The traditional thought was that Republicans generally agree with little regulation, small government. But in this case they’re saying, ‘We feel like we can’t protect our constituents without the legislature giving us a little more power. We feel like we are powerless to stop these projects and we have to basically tell our constituents, sorry, all we can do is put out a resolution saying we don’t want this or all we can do is put out a resolution saying please tell us XYZ information that we might want to know.’
So that’s been new, not to say that local Republicans have never disagreed with the state leadership, but it’s not often. This is one of those issues where they are pushing back and they are asking their colleagues in Austin to do something about it.
DY: One theme in our data center coverage is this idea of power dynamics, and how those are playing out in rural communities. We’re exploring, for example, how developers come into rural communities that might be strapped for capacity in terms of local governance. And then the developers, on the other hand, are often either being supported by Big Tech companies or are going to develop data centers to serve Big Tech companies. We’re looking at how negotiations can play out.
In your May story about rural Texas Republicans, you wrote about the amount of money from Big Tech companies that’s coming into Texas, and specifically into Texas politics. Do you see that money having influence right now in Texas?
TG: I think it’s still early to say, especially as we’re heading into a general election. But from what we can tell from the primary, yes, these companies are forming super PACs and giving in various states. It seems like they have been giving based on who the party in power is. So in Texas they’ve been giving to Republicans, but in some of the Democratic-led states, they’ve been giving to Democrats.
I will say one thing that complicates analyzing this issue is that Big Tech has its hands in a lot of things. We already did have a lot of Big Tech money coming into Texas for a number of reasons. Meta was already involved here because we’ve had social media bills we’ve worked on in this state and passed on a number of issues as it relates to children and as it relates to age verification and all those things. But it does seem like there is a new outpouring, especially from these new PACs on the national level, that they’ve given at least some of that money to state lawmakers.
But it’s not clear yet whether that will translate to political support. I think it’s too early to say whether this money will make a difference or whether it changes the dynamic. But in terms of how much money these companies have to give compared to what a grassroots opposition campaign can do, it’s clearly favored towards the companies.
DY: I know this summer, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, came out with some new policy priorities to regulate data centers, including a proposal that would limit the state’s sales tax abatement on the facilities. He’s also called for a ban on data centers in rural Texas neighborhoods. How have communities responded to those policy proposals?
TG: I think they’re encouraged that at least the governor seems like he’s hearing some of their concerns and trying to address them. There are early signs that the politicians are listening and reacting. It will just be a matter of what kind of legislation, how strict of regulation, do we actually end up seeing next year [during the next legislative session].
DY: I know that Texas has some of its own unique considerations when it comes to data centers, not only in politics, which we’ve talked about, but also in its history in the energy sector, specifically in oil and gas production. I mean, Texas has its own power grid. But despite these unique factors in the state, what do you think the rest of the country can take away from your reporting in rural communities in Texas?
TG: At least initially, these local opposition grassroots networks have had somewhat of an impact. I mean, they are at least slowing down a lot of these projects. It seems like that’s mostly on the city level because that’s where they have more control. But I would say that any politician who is not looking at this like it’s a major, top-priority political issue for right now and next year especially would be making a huge mistake. It seems like this is only gonna get bigger, and even if data centers are not as prevalent in your state, it seems like from what we’re seeing in Texas that this is not going away. And, these rural communities are really having a front row seat, whether they like it or not, to what’s going on. I think the spotlight is in many ways on them to see how far they’ll take this opposition and what kind of pressure that will put on politicians to change legislation.
DY: I know you’ll be keeping an eye on it in Texas and we’ll be keeping an eye on it in other parts of the country. Last question for you: sort of journalist-to-journalist. We’re seeing more coverage of data center opposition now at the national level. I’m curious from your perspective reporting on rural communities in Texas, what parts of this story do you feel are underreported? Is there anything that the national coverage is missing?
TG: The bipartisan nature of the opposition has been extremely interesting. And any reporting on the opposition has to note that this is one of those weird unicorn issues where Republicans and Democrats are joining hands in opposition to these projects in a lot of places. I’ve heard from community members that it’s been very nice for them to get together around what they’re viewing as some of the basics around what kind of place they want their children to grow up in and how they feel about their precious water resources and things like that. In pretty much every group I talk to, it is not one political party over the other.
Then I think there are developing issues around whether the technology will catch up in a way that might ease some of this opposition. I mean, we are already hearing about new cooling methods that use less water and methods that might use less power. So, I think we’re almost in a race against time as these are getting built, to see if the data centers can make these changes in a way that will actually address some of the concerns of the constituents.
DY: Taylor Goldenstein, thank you. You can keep up with Taylor’s reporting at The Texas Tribune, and stay tuned for more from our deep dive into rural data center development across the country, this week on Yonder Radio.