I was born in Houston. And I grew up there. Just like all young Texans - rural or urban — we were taught early on in school about The Alamo, and the approximately 200 brave men in 1836, who died defending it against nearly 1,800 Mexican soldiers.
Texas was a part of Mexico then. The men in The Alamo were fighting for Texas’ freedom. Us kids were taught back then to stand up for Texas no matter what, just as they did, in the proudest moment of our state’s history.
In 2026, we are once again outnumbered by a powerful enemy. We are in a serious battle to protect our state. And the stakes are beyond high. They’re astronomical. Because these enemies will steal our water and spew a killer poison into the air, polluting the atmosphere around us.
THEY’RE DATA CENTERS
Data centers are “the backbone of digital services globally — facilitating the super-fast communications and transactions” we expect. A data center is “a building that houses the infrastructure that supports the world’s computing functions.” When you use your credit card, have a zoom meeting, or send an email, that activity is connected to a data center.
HERE’S THE SCARY DOWNSIDE
Rural data centers — the ones planned for Texas — are huge. They require at least 10 to 40 acres of land and sometimes need up to 1,000 acres.
They use massive amounts of electricity. A large data center “uses enough electricity to power 100,000 or more homes.” That will drive up local electricity costs.
To keep from overheating, a large data center can use up to 5 million gallons of water a day, enough for a town of 50,000 residents.
IT’S EVEN WORSE
Big data centers (hyperscale centers like the ones planned for Texas) emit “more than 7.8 million tons of greenhouse gasses per year.” According to the American Lung Association, they cause asthma, heart attacks and lung cancer. They also increase the spread of infectious diseases.
Greenhouse gases are also causing climate change and its sudden fast-moving floods, droughts, wildfires, and severe heat. It’s the reason twenty-five, 8- to 10-yearold girls and 2 camp counselors drowned at Camp Mystic in the Hill Country last year.
THE ALAMO TRADITION
Texas Tribune polls show a majority of Texans don’t want these massive Data Centers built in our state. Yet it looks like Texas is the top market, “with the most planned projects than any other state.”
They will pour out “more than 287 million tons of greenhouse gasses” every year, the same amount as 61 million gasoline powered cars in a year.
Governor Greg Abbott recently wrote state regulators asking them to support tighter regulations of the centers’ energy and water use and the repeal of a state sales tax exemption “costing Texas more than a billion dollars a year.”
OUT NUMBERED OR NOT, HELP ABBOTT FIGHT NOW.
I don’t want Texas screwed for generations to come. Neither do you!
Jodie Sinclair is an award-winning writer who holds a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and resides in Bandera.
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