Abbott proposes ban on rural data centers after shifting stance

Gov. Greg Abbott is now calling for a ban on data centers in rural Texas. Some are calling it an about-face from the remarks he made just last year.Data Center DebateThen this week, Abbott was at an event in East Texas to talk about property taxes. But he brought up the topic of data centers, saying they should not be built in rural Texas neighborhoods and those that are built need more regulation."Pushing back on these AI data centers that are trying to build in our neighborhoods. I’ve made it clear already, any AI data center thinking about coming here, they have to bring their own money, bring their own power, use their own water, and do it in a way that reduces the cost of electricity for residents across our state. We must prohibit them from building AI data centers in rural Texas neighborhoods. We must eliminate the tax break they are getting," he said.These comments are different from when the governor was with the Google CEO in Midlothian last November. Google was announcing th