Sid Miller Urges Data Center Moratorium to Protect Texas Farmland

Texas Commissioner of Agriculture Sid Miller is calling for a one-year moratorium on new hyperscale data centers to protect the state's 900 billion dollar agriculture industry. Miller argues that developers target the most productive farmland because of existing infrastructure, which he claims threatens long-term food security and strains water and power resources.

To mitigate these impacts, Miller proposed creating agriculture Freedom zones to steer industrial development toward less productive land and suggested using produced water from oil and gas operations for cooling. He warned that the state power grid cannot support the projected demand if all 500 pending data center designations are approved.

Governor Greg Abbott has declined the moratorium and provided 300 million dollars in tax incentives to attract the data center industry. Miller has urged the governor to call a special legislative session to establish regulatory guardrails and alleged that Abbott has a conflict of interest due to receiving millions of dollars in campaign contributions from the data center industry.