HOSTILE TAKEOVER STORY

I call it the spread of the industrial spiderweb : AI data centers, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), sprawling solar and wind farms, and gargantuan 765-kV transmission lines are aggressively transforming our pristine rural Texas landscape.

Our Texas leaders have offered plenty of reasons why the extraordinary scale and concentration of this industrial infrastructure is necessary.

There's just one problem.

The narratives don't add up against the facts.

And Texans are smart enough to know it.

We are told America needs more AI data centers for national security .

Fair enough.

Artificial intelligence has become strategically important to America's economy, military capability and global competitiveness.

But here's my question: How many are enough—and why does so much of the infrastructure required to support them have to be concentrated in Texas?

The United States already has 5,427 listed data centers.

China has 449.

Germany, with the second-highest number in the world, has 529.

India has 153.

America also hosts roughly three-quarters of the observed high-end AI computing capacity in the world —approximately five times China's share.

So, America isn't behind.

We're overwhelmingly ahead.

Then we're told the growth is necessary because more people are using the Internet and AI.

But consider this: India + China: Approximately 2.33 billion Internet users 602 listed data centers United States: Approximately 324 million Internet users 5,427 listed data centers India and China combined have more than seven times as many Internet users as the United States.

The United States has approximately nine times as many listed data centers as those two countries combined.

Clearly, population and Internet usage alone cannot explain the scale of America's buildout.

So, now that the narratives have giant holes in them, how can Governor Abbott possibly justify the aggressive growth of this industry in Texas?

BUT FIRST, LET'S REVIEW HOW TEXAS GOT HERE This massive expansion didn't happen in a policy vacuum.

Governor Greg Abbott has publicly positioned Texas as the nation's center for artificial intelligence development.

In November 2025, while announcing Google's $40 billion investment in Texas—including three new data-center campuses—Abbott declared: “Texas is the epicenter of AI development.” He said America must remain at the forefront of the AI revolution and: “Texas is the place where that can happen.”

Texas' electric-grid planning doesn't operate in a separate universe from the governor's policy agenda.

Governor Abbott appoints the commissioners of the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT).

The PUCT has extensive authority over the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). And, Abbott himself has repeatedly issued directives to both the PUCT and ERCOT concerning data-center development.

So, when ERCOT began planning for unprecedented new industrial electrical demand, it was doing so in a state whose governor had openly committed Texas to becoming America's AI epicenter.

And the demand exploded.

ERCOT's April 2026 data showed approximately 410 gigawatts of large loads seeking interconnection to the Texas grid.

Nearly 87% were data centers.

By August, the number had grown again.

Governor Abbott's own office disclosed that ERCOT was considering more than 474 gigawatts of requests for new connections to the Texas grid—more than five times Texas' record peak electricity demand.

Approximately: 90% OF THOSE NEW POWER REQUESTS WERE DATA CENTERS.

Read that again.

Then read what the governor's own office said about it: “That unprecedented load growth could endanger the reliability and stability of the Texas electric grid.” Think about what just happened.

Our governor aggressively positioned Texas to become the epicenter of America's AI industry.

The data-center developers came along with requests for 765 kV Transmission Lines, BESS sites, and solar/wind farms.

Requests for staggering amounts of electricity followed.

ERCOT began planning the infrastructure necessary to accommodate enormous projected electrical demand.

And now the governor who declared Texas the epicenter of AI development has ordered an audit before additional data-center projects can move forward through ERCOT's interconnection process.

So perhaps Texans deserve an answer to a very simple question: Who decided how much was enough before Texas began transforming itself to accommodate it?

THE INDUSTRIAL SPIDERWEB

Data centers don't exist in isolation.

They require enormous amounts of electricity.

Accommodating enormous new electrical demand requires additional generation and grid capacity.

Moving that electricity requires transmission.

Transmission requires substations, easements, communication cables and rights-of-way.

Some large data centers can require significant water resources, depending upon their cooling technology and design.

New generation increasingly includes massive battery storage systems.

And acre by acre, project by project, what once looked like unrelated developments begins to resemble an interconnected industrial system.

An industrial spiderweb.

Governor Abbott recently promised he would not build anymore data centers in “rural Texas neighborhoods”. He didn’t mention rural Texas though.

NOW, look at where the next generation of data centers is going.

According to a 2026 Pew Research Center analysis, 67% of planned U.S. data centers are headed for rural areas.

That's a remarkable reversal.

Only 13% of currently operating data centers are rural.

Yet 67% of those planned are rural.

And 39% of planned data centers are headed for counties that currently don't have a data center at all.

Texas already ranks second in the nation in combined operating and planned data centers.

So, I have another question: WHAT EXACTLY ARE WE TRANSFORMING RURAL TEXAS INTO?

Because this industrial expansion is moving across the same rural Texas landscape that contains our: farmland, ranches, aquifers, oil, natural gas, minerals.

These aren't empty spaces on a map. They are strategic resources.

So perhaps the question Texans should be asking isn't: Are data centers good or bad?

That's far too simplistic.

The questions are: Why are so many of our natural resources being sacrificed for these sites?

How much industrial infrastructure does Texas need?

Who determined that amount?

Why, if we have so many of these facilities in Texas, could we possibly need more?

Who benefits economically?

Who absorbs the long-term costs?

Why are rural communities being targeted?

What happens to our water, agricultural land, property rights and electric grid when hundreds of these projects operate simultaneously?

And perhaps most importantly: At what point does infrastructure intended to strengthen Texas begin making Texas more dependent upon the very infrastructure we've built?

I'm not asking Texans to believe a conspiracy theory.

I'm asking something far more reasonable.

WHAT IS THE REAL PLAN?

Show us the cumulative water demand, the cumulative electrical demand, the agricultural acreage being converted, the transmission footprint, the tax incentives.

Show us who owns the projects and who receives the power.

Show us the projected economic benefit to Texans.

And show us how much is enough.

Because “national security” cannot become a blank check for unlimited industrialization of rural Texas.

Neither can “economic development.” Neither can “AI.”

If this transformation of Texas is truly necessary, then its architects should be able to demonstrate—in numbers—that its benefits outweigh its costs; should be able to justify further expansion of this industry over critical natural resources that enable Texas to remain independent.

And rural Texans should not have to discover transformative industrial projects coming to their communities after critical decisions have already been made.

Case in point: At 4:38 pm on Thursday, August 27th, while most Texans were clocking out at work, the PUCT Chairman, Thomas Gleeson dropped an 11th hour memo to approve two 765 kV transmission contested cases.

In that memo Chairman Gleeson, an Abbott appointee, removed a conclusion of law from a State Administrative Office Hearing. Administrative Law Judge Shenoy and Judge McCabe concluded that Oncor did not fully comply with 16 TAC 22.52(a)(4), which is a law requiring a utility provider to provide notice of public meetings for affected landowners of the transmission line.

The following day the PUC commissioners unanimously approved 2 of the 765 kV lines with little to no discussion, effectively rubber stamping the whole 765 kV STEP buildout. In the meeting Gleeson, made Oncor, affiliated with Simpra, a California company, "promise to work with the landowners" for route adjustments. Later that day, AG Paxton submitted an amicus brief for all the 765-KV dockets explaining that the PUC does not have the authority to implement a state-wide plan without the approval of the legislature and to delay the decision until next session.

Now, will the PUCT honor or ignore AG Paxton’s intervention?

Texans deserve a seat at the table to be heard.

They deserve advance notice.

They deserve public meetings.

They deserve access to the facts.

They deserve the opportunity to say NO.

They deserve to know if their civic leaders signed NDAs or MOUs to generate these deals behind their backs?

They deserve an opportunity to ask questions about water, electricity, emergency response, property values, transmission, taxation, compliance, safety measures and the cumulative impact of multiple projects.

And they deserve those answers before , not after, their communities are transformed.

AND NOW THE STORY CHANGES.

On August 3, 2026—months before Texans vote—Governor Abbott ordered the PUCT and ERCOT to audit data-center projects seeking connection to the Texas grid. His directive suddenly demanded answers to many of the questions rural Texans have been asking.

How much electricity will they consume?

Where will their water come from?

What cooling technology will they use?

What systems are in place to protect our water, air, quiet, cattle, farms?

What tax incentives and public financial assistance will they receive?

Who owns and controls the projects?

Who holds the owners accountable for safety and security?

What impact will they have on neighboring property owners and communities?

Those are excellent questions.

But why weren't we demanding those answers before Governor Abbott declared Texas the epicenter of AI development?

And if the situation is now serious enough that the governor's own office warns this unprecedented load growth could “endanger the reliability and stability of the Texas electric grid,” an even bigger question demands an answer: WHY AN AUDIT INSTEAD OF A SPECIAL SESSION?

The governor of Texas has the authority to call the Legislature into special session.

Governor Abbott has exercised that authority before. Yet his own June directive said he would work with lawmakers during the “next session” to enact legislation requiring data centers to use water-efficient cooling systems, accurately report electricity and water consumption, phase out outdated tax incentives and adopt protections for neighboring communities.

Next session?

If Texas' water, electric grid, property owners and rural communities require statutory protection from an industrial expansion occurring right now , why should Texans wait?

Why not call legislators back to Austin now, BEFORE the November election, and place a pause on all these projects? Anything less enables the continued unchecked spread of this industrial spiderweb.

Request a justifiable rationale to produce all new projects.

Put enforceable statewide protections before them.

Debate them publicly.

Vote on them publicly.

Let Texans see where each legislator stands.

An audit can collect information.

A directive can impose requirements within the existing authority of the PUCT and ERCOT.

Neither substitutes for legislation where new statutory protections are needed.

Then, on August 23, ABC News' Jonathan Karl confronted Governor Abbott with the contradiction.

Karl reminded Abbott that he had called Texas the “epicenter of the A.I. industry” and asked: “In hindsight, did Texas move too fast?”

Abbott answered: “It wasn't Texas that was moving fast, it was these data centers.” That's difficult to reconcile with the record.

Texas didn't simply wake up one morning and discover that the AI industry had arrived.

Texas invited it.

Texas promoted it.

Our governor celebrated it.

And now Texans are confronting the enormous expansion of electrical infrastructure that would be necessary to serve it. Now, after the scale of the demand has become impossible to ignore (OR JUSTIFY) - and months before Texans vote—we are being told the data centers moved too fast.

Maybe the governor's new audit will produce meaningful protections.

But Texans will not accept hollow promises.

We measure actions.

What has been stopped?

What protections have become law?

What water-use requirements are enforceable statewide?

What protections now exist for rural landowners?

What incentives have been eliminated?

What cumulative-impact standards have been adopted?

And if additional legislation is necessary—as Governor Abbott's own June directive acknowledges— why are we waiting until the “next session”?

This no longer feels like the careful launch of a burgeoning new industry.

To many rural Texans, it feels more like a hostile takeover.

The governor says Texas didn't move too fast.

The numbers tell us Texas is now confronting 474 gigawatts of proposed new electrical demand , approximately 90% from data centers , that his own office says could threaten the reliability and stability of our electric grid.

So don't tell Texans everything is under control.

Show us.

Do the right thing Governor Abbott.

Be our hero.

PAUSE these projects and call a special session.

Pass legislation to address voter concerns.

One more thing.

Now that the narratives we’ve been told no longer justify further expansion of these sites in Texas, we are left with one enormous unanswered question: WHAT IS REALLY DRIVING THIS INVASION?

Sources:

Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, AI Index Report 2026 — U.S. 5,427; Germany 529; China 449; India 153 data centers.

Epoch AI, June 5, 2025 — U.S. hosts approximately three-quarters of global GPU-cluster performance; China approximately 15%.

DataReportal Digital 2026 — approximately 1.30 billion Internet users in China and 1.03 billion in India.

Pew Research Center, April 13, 2026 — 67% of planned data centers rural; 13% of operating centers rural; 39% planned in counties currently without one; Texas operating/planned totals.

ERCOT, Senate Business & Commerce presentation, April 1, 2026 — approximately 410 GW of large loads seeking interconnection; approximately 87% data centers.

Gleeson/PUCT decision. https://interchange.puc.texas.gov/Documents/59315_5815_1677969.PDF Office of Gov.

Greg Abbott — Nov. 14, 2025, AI/Google announcement; June 10, 2026, data-center directive; Aug. 3, 2026, comprehensive audit announcement and 474 GW/90% figures.

ABC News, This Week transcript, Aug. 23, 2026 — Jonathan Karl/Gov.

Abbott exchange concerning whether Texas moved too fast.

Did You Know?

You can learn more about this issue.

Join SaveRuralTexas.com via the link below: https://www.saveruraltexas.com/join-us#Contact%20%2F%20Join%20Form Click Here To Find Your Legislators Join SaveRuralTexas.com to receive future issues of this newsletter.

Special Thanks We want to give a shout out to all of you helping to protect Texas resources and preserve our Texas way of life. • Security of the Grid in Texas • Texans United Against Data Centers • Don't Drain Texas • Say No to Data Centers • Don’t B.E.S.S. with Texas • DFW Communities Over Data Centers Coalition • Bell County East-Big Hill 765 kV • Texarkana Group/Bowie County Citizens • Edwards Plateau Alliance Info@SaveRuralTexas.com www.SaveRuralTexas.com