Texas and Pennsylvania governors reverse data center push as political liability
Source: The Wall Street Journal (paywall)
Greg Abbott and Josh Shapiro built their growth agendas around attracting hyperscale data centers, but are now constraining permits and zoning approvals as local opposition to power consumption, water use, and land conversion has become a political cost they cannot absorb. This reversal exposes the fragility of tech-as-development-strategy: once infrastructure becomes visible and burdensome to constituents rather than abstract economic promise, political leaders abandon it faster than they embraced it, leaving companies caught between state-level enthusiasm and municipal resistance. Data center deployment will increasingly depend on permitting agencies insulated from electoral politics and on companies finding workarounds—rural land trusts, private agreements—rather than traditional government partnership.