AUSTIN, Texas (CN) – Data center opponents and advocates descended on the Texas Capitol on Tuesday to plead with lawmakers to exercise their power over the highly controversial industry.
The Texas House Natural Resources Committee meeting brought hundreds from different sides of the data center debate together. Part of the meeting was devoted solely to examining the millions of liters of water used by data centers every day for cooling.
In a state where water can be a scarce and precious resourcedata centers have become an existential threat to those in rural areas where powerful technology companies have chosen to locate.
Roger Browning, a cattle rancher from Quanah, told Courthouse News that the development of data centers around him has already affected access to water in the area.
“I have a neighbor whose well is ruined,” Browning said. “I have another neighbor whose well volume went from an inch flow, running 24 hours, and now it’s pumping after 30 minutes. The only variable is that they’re pumping the water out to build the data center; nothing else is happening.”
Texas has experienced an explosion in data center projects in recent years. Temple McKinnon, Director of the Texas Water Development Board’s Water Supply Planning Division, reported that in 2023, the board oversaw 22 units. In 2025, the board oversaw 341.
Some committee members were surprised to learn that the data needed to assess the impact of data centers on Texas’ natural resources is itself a scarce resource.
According to McKinnon, of the over 300 data centers or cryptocurrency mines the board surveyed about their surface and underground usage, only 17% responded. below Texas Water Codesubjects are required to respond to the survey or face charges of a Class C misdemeanor.
Representative Trent Ashby, a Republican from Lufkin, avoided blaming state agencies for the lack of answers, but emphasized the state’s critical need to get this information.
“When you’re talking about massive water use, especially groundwater, and the state can’t quantify how much water is being used, I think we can all understand why Texans are rightly concerned…” Ashby said.
Later, committee members heard from a panel of data center executives who tried to assuage lawmakers’ growing frustration.
Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy at Data Center Coalition – an advocacy organization representing companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Anthropic and OpenAI – said the industry takes water issues seriously and responds to concerns.
He emphasized the industry’s exploration of various cooling techniques that do not use surface or groundwater, but advised against imposing restrictions on the industry.
“Forcing today’s technology fails to create an environment that fosters tomorrow’s innovation,” Diorio said.
The committee also heard from Beau Shilz, head of the Water Team at Amazon Web Services, and Ben Townsend, Google’s Head of Infrastructure Strategy and Sustainability, who gave examples of how tech giants are using non-potable water or closed cooling systems to reduce their pressure on communities’ water supplies.
Despite these commitments, many of the people who traveled across the state to witness did not waver.
Tom Green County Commissioner Shawn Nanny told the committee of his experience dealing with constituents who were angry and fearful of what a proposed data center in his area could do to the area.
“These people look to me to protect them and I was absolutely powerless,” recalls Dado.
Seeking agency as an elected official, Nanny called on lawmakers to give him, and county commissioners like him, more authority to evaluate and limit data center projects.
For many of the Texans who attended the meeting, those who fear what data centers could bring to their communities, they asked the Legislature to enact a moratorium on all projects so that data can be properly collected and regulations put in place.
“I’m asking the governor for a special hearing,” Roger Browning told the committee. “And tell (Gov. Greg Abbott) I’m firing him. I’m a conservative, but I have no use for anybody who’s in favor of these data centers.”
Out of 1200 registered voters polled by the Texas Policy Project56% said they were against building a data center in their community, with 29% in support. The poll released Tuesday has a margin of error of +/- 2.83%.
Data center regulation is expected to be a major topic for lawmakers when they return to Austin for a regular legislative session next year.
Until then, Abbott has sought to enact a regulation of his own director Public Utilities Commission and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to ensure that data center projects do not burden Texans and the state’s natural resources.
“Data centers must bring their own power, they must reuse their water, and they must lower electricity costs for residential and small business customers,” Abbott wrote in one. post on X. “We’re going to cut incentives and protect Texas neighborhoods. That’s the ultimate expectation.”
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