Data center approvals could remain on hold in Texas until lawmakers pass new state laws next year if Democrat Gina Hinojosa keeps her campaign promises after winning the gubernatorial race in a resounding victory Tuesday.
His statements on the campaign trail went beyond Gov. Greg Abbott’s current freeze on environmental permits and network connections for data centers during an audit period expected to end this year.
Popular opposition to data centers has grown in communities across Texas, where critics across the political spectrum have raised concerns about almost unbelievable projections for the amount of power the facilities could draw from the state’s grid and the unknown amount of water they would need to operate in a state facing severe drought problems.
Hinojosa attacked Abbott’s handling of the matter. She called for a moratorium on data centers to last until the Texas Legislature meets in January to pass “real protections so Texans can have a seat at the table to decide if and how data centers come into their communities.”
“When I am governor, I will place a moratorium – a ban – on all data center approvals until laws can be passed by the Legislature to protect Texans,” Hinojosa said in a video posted October 22 on X.
Hinojosa’s plan for data centers
During her campaign, the governor-elect laid out a list of priorities for lawmakers, including requiring data center operators to hire union workers, protecting community water supplies, and prohibiting data center companies from using nondisclosure agreements that make it harder for the public to track project developments.
Similar to Abbott, Hinojosa also said she would push to ensure Texans won’t pay more for electricity because of data centers and to end tax subsidies that were depriving the state of billions of dollars in sales tax revenue.
“We can have economic development and we can have protections for Texans. Those things are not mutually exclusive,” she said in an interview with Politico in September.
Hinojosa will work with a Texas House dominated by Democrats. She takes office on January 19.
Abbott slowly cracked down on the facilities, going from a politician who in November touted Texas as “the epicenter of AI development” to one who, starting in August, began withholding approvals from the state’s network data centers, and then from the environmental permitting agency, so that information on the facilities could be audited and collected.
The audit carried out by regulators and network operators was expected to last until December. Abbott had also required authorities to collect information on tax incentives and water consumption, whether data centers brought in their own electricity or water supplies and whether data centers took steps to reduce impacts on neighbors from light and noise pollution.
How that information would be used remained unclear, but Abbott had required that data centers pay for their own electrical infrastructure — a process being worked out by state regulators — in addition to using water-saving technology. He promised to continue eliminating tax breaks for data centers during the legislative session.
Meanwhile, data center-related donors have given Abbott some $9 million since July 2025, the Texas Tribune reported. And in October, environmental and community advocates identified some data center-related environmental permits that they said had been approved anyway despite Abbott’s pause, forcing the permitting agency to shut down its online filing system.
Some county officials have also expressed frustration with their lack of authority under current state law to regulate data centers.
“Real anger in the communities”
Data Center Watch, which studies opposition to data centers in the United States, said in an analysis Tuesday that the state “offers one of the clearest examples of how data center regulation is becoming an election issue.” The group found that 43% of 74 gubernatorial candidates surveyed in 36 states favored a moratorium or ban on data centers.
“We’ve just seen real anger in communities — large, small, in solid red counties and dark blue counties alike,” said Kathryn Guerra, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality monitoring campaign director for Public Citizen, which identified the flawed permit approvals.
“What happened yesterday seems to be a reflection of this anger,” she added. “We are now in a position to listen to Texans and help provide solutions to the concerns they have raised over the past year with the massive influx of data centers that Texas has experienced.”
Jess Heck, director of Texas government affairs for the industry association Data Center Coalition, said in a statement that data centers could continue to drive job creation and strengthen the state’s economy through investment in communities and generation of tax revenue.
“The data center industry is committed to advancing America’s digital infrastructure, including here in the Lone Star State, as well as supporting energy reliability and affordability and promoting responsible, long-term economic development,” Heck said.
The coalition, Heck continued, “looks forward to working with state leaders, as well as local officials, stakeholders and communities across Texas to continue to build trust and support responsible data center growth.”
Elon Musk, who founded the artificial intelligence company xAI and backed Abbott, posted on X: “Data centers in space look pretty attractive right now. »
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