Texas governor threatens to penalize datacenters not obeying water laws

Republican Greg Abbott says datacenters must help ‘protect’ drought-prone state and disclose water use

Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, has directed state regulators to penalize datacenters that fail to comply with state laws requiring them to disclose their water use.

“Data centers must share the duty to protect Texas water,” the Republican governor said on Monday. “The Texas Water Code requires a complete and accurate water use survey. I direct the Texas Water Development Board to use its enforcement authority to penalize past failures and to impose legal consequences for any future failure to comply,” he added.