Abbott Was for Data Centers Before Rural Texas Was Against Them

Gov. Greg Abbott says he will not allow data centers to be built in rural Texas neighborhoods.

Apparently, Abbott was for data centers before rural Texas was against them.

The line recalls one of the most damaging political statements of the 2004 presidential campaign, when Democratic nominee John Kerry said he had voted for an $87 billion spending measure before voting against it. Republicans used the statement relentlessly as proof that Kerry would change positions whenever the politics became uncomfortable.

Now Texas’ Republican governor is performing his own version of the Kerry shuffle.

For years, Abbott welcomed data centers, celebrated their investment and promoted Texas as the ideal home for the technology industry. His administration stood beside corporate executives at groundbreaking ceremonies and investment announcements. Texas provided qualifying data centers with a state sales-tax exemption now projected to cost the state more than $3 billion over two years.

Abbott was present when Facebook broke ground on its Fort Worth data center in 2015. More recently, he celebrated Google’s announcement of a $40 billion Texas investment in artificial intelligence and data center infrastructure.

This was not an industry that slipped quietly into Texas while the governor was looking the other way.

Abbott recruited it.  
He promoted it.
His state subsidized it.

But now that rural Republican voters are angry about data centers consuming water, demanding enormous amounts of electricity and appearing beside homes and farms, Abbott suddenly wants to sound like the man standing between rural Texas and the industry he helped bring here.

His latest promise is that he will not allow data centers to be built in “rural Texas neighborhoods.”

That may sound reassuring to people who do not understand how rural Texas actually works. It may also be proof that Abbott is a city boy, because rural Texans do not usually describe where we live as “rural Texas neighborhoods.” We talk about communities, farms, ranches, county roads and the people who live around us. 

But the larger problem is not the awkward language. It is that the statement has no present legal force. Abbott did not announce a moratorium, give counties zoning authority or identify any existing law that would allow him to stop a data center from being built in an unincorporated rural area.

Abbott did not announce a moratorium. He did not issue an order stopping rural construction. He did not give county commissioners zoning authority. He did not call lawmakers into a special session to create a lawful process through which counties could approve or reject these projects.

He made a political statement into a camera.

Texas cities generally possess zoning authority inside their municipal boundaries. Counties do not have comparable general zoning authority in unincorporated areas, where many rural data center projects are being proposed.

That means the governor’s promise is aimed precisely at the Texans whose local governments have the least power to enforce it.

Abbott’s June directive to the Public Utility Commission and ERCOT addressed who should pay for electrical infrastructure needed by data centers. It did not prohibit rural projects or give counties control over their location. His broader proposals—including noise protections, water-efficiency requirements and changes to tax incentives—would require future legislative action.

He has also stopped short of proposing a statewide moratorium.

So what, exactly, does it mean when Abbott says he will not “allow” a data center to be built in a rural neighborhood?

Under what law will he stop it?

Which state agency will issue the denial?

What authority will a county judge or commissioners court use?

What qualifies as a rural neighborhood?

How far must a facility be from a home?

Does the promise apply to a single farmhouse, a subdivision, an entire community or only a platted residential development?

Abbott does not have answers to those questions because the statement was not a policy announcement.  It was a political reassurance aimed at rural voters.

The governor understands that resistance to data centers is spreading through the same conservative communities that form the foundation of his political power. Rural residents are appearing at public meetings and demanding answers about water, electricity, noise, transmission lines, industrial generators and the permanent transformation of agricultural land.

They are also discovering that the state has left their counties largely powerless to decide where these projects belong.

Abbott could address that immediately by calling a special legislative session.

He could ask lawmakers to give counties narrowly tailored siting authority over exceptionally large data centers. He could support a temporary pause while Texas establishes enforceable standards. He could create public-notice and hearing requirements. He could require meaningful setbacks from occupied homes. He could allow commissioners courts to consider whether a proposed industrial complex is compatible with surrounding land uses.

He has not done that.

Instead, Abbott has adopted the political language of opposition while preserving the underlying policy of support.

He remains in favor of data center investment. He continues to describe artificial intelligence infrastructure as important to Texas’ economic future. His position is not that data centers should stop coming to Texas. His position is that they should continue coming under somewhat different rules.

That may be a defensible policy position.

What is not defensible is pretending that he has already protected rural communities when he has done no such thing.

John Kerry became a national punchline because Republicans argued that he wanted credit for occupying both sides of an issue.

Abbott now wants credit for bringing data centers to Texas and credit for protecting rural Texans from them.

He wants the technology companies to remember that he opened the door.

He wants rural voters to believe he is guarding it.

He wants to celebrate the investment while distancing himself from the consequences.

Abbott was for the incentives before he was against the incentives.

He was for rapid data center expansion before he was for stronger restrictions.

He was for making Texas the easiest place in America to build before rural Republicans began asking what those projects would do to their homes, farms, water and electric bills.

The governor is not against data centers now.

He is against the political consequences of his data center policy.

That is why he inserted the word “rural” into his statement. It was intended to make frustrated voters feel seen without giving their elected county officials any additional authority.

The word creates the impression that Abbott has stepped in.

The law says otherwise.

A governor cannot create county zoning authority with a campaign video. He cannot stop a lawful private development merely by announcing that he will not allow it. He cannot erase a decade of industry recruitment by attaching the word “rural” to a new political message.

Rural Texans should not accept rhetoric as protection.

They should ask Abbott to identify the law that gives his promise meaning. They should demand a special session or a concrete legislative proposal. They should judge him by whether he gives rural communities actual authority—not by whether his communications staff finds the right words to calm them down.

Republicans once mocked a Democratic presidential candidate for being for something before he was against it.

Rural Texas should apply the same standard to its Republican governor.

Because this data center boom did not happen to Greg Abbott.

It happened under Greg Abbott.

And adding the word “rural” now does not make him the hero of a problem his own policies helped create.