water policy

As oil and gas companies run out of places to dispose of their wastewater, Texas regulators are drafting permits to treat and reuse it outside the oilfields.

Critics say the governor must call legislators to Austin to pass state laws regulating data centers.

On Monday, the governor ordered the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to audit all data centers wanting to connect to the state’s power grid.

While a new state law partly limits data center groundwater use, in reality, data centers avoid water permits entirely by buying water from utilities. Residents are demanding answers in communities like Luther and Yukon.

The state’s resilient, adaptable farmers can raise just about anything and use less water doing it. But will enough people buy what they produce?

Data centers use water to cool their massive arrays of computer servers. A state agency sent out a survey to figure out how much, but less than a third of the companies responded.

Some Kansans are spooked by data centers as the likelihood of the state hosting more big tech facilities is rising. They’re worried about potential harmful impacts to the environment and just being heard during preliminary public meetings. One positive to all the hullabaloo? Heightened civic engagement early in local proceedings.

A new UT Austin report estimates data centers could account for up to 9% of Texas water use by 2040.

Texans from Waco to Harlingen are raising concerns over how much energy and water data centers are poised to use. Local officials, some enticed by a tax boon, say they have little power to stop the rush.

The extra $25 million for the Kansas Water Plan would come from the State General Fund.