{"id":25011,"date":"2026-05-14T08:00:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T08:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/?p=869761"},"modified":"2026-05-14T08:00:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T08:00:55","slug":"dallas-exurb-hits-pause-on-data-centers-in-rare-texas-rebuke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2026\/05\/14\/dallas-exurb-hits-pause-on-data-centers-in-rare-texas-rebuke\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Exurb Hits Pause on Data Centers in Rare Texas Rebuke"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/img\/social\/opengraph\/ij-social-default-1200x630.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<ul class=\"nav nav-tabs tabs tabs-entry\">\n<li class=\"active\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/southcentral\/2026\/05\/14\/869761.htm\">Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/southcentral\/2026\/05\/14\/869761.htm?comments\" rel=\"nofollow\">0 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"article-content clearfix\">\n<p class=\"bloomberg\">A small Texas county outside Dallas approved a one-year moratorium on new data center and energy storage developments, pushing back against the growing number of large-scale projects fueling the artificial-intelligence boom across the state.<\/p>\n<p>Hill County had been approached by several data center builders in recent weeks, and feared the potential impact to local water supplies and quality of life, County Commissioner Jim Holcomb said in a meeting Tuesday. The County Commissioners Court passed the pause after hours of negative testimony from people at the meeting.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"79\" data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe data center folks have found a sweet spot in a state that has limited regulations, limited enforcement, limited code, and they\u2019re coming faster than we can keep up with,\u201d Holcomb said during the proceedings. \u201cThis is a public health, public safety matter that the Commissioners Court needs to take on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The moratorium amounts to a rare rebuke in growth-friendly Texas as lawmakers and Governor Greg Abbott position the state as a leader in the data center boom. OpenAI\u2019s and Oracle Corp.\u2019s flagship Stargate campus is being built in Abilene, adjacent to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-03-24\/microsoft-to-rent-texas-data-center-dropped-by-oracle-openai\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">700-megawatt data center<\/a> that will be leased by Microsoft Corp.<\/p>\n<p>Hill County\u2019s move appears to be a first for Texas, according to <em>The Texas Tribune<\/em>, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2026\/05\/12\/texas-hill-county-approves-data-center-construction-pause-ai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reported<\/a> on it earlier. Abbott\u2019s office declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>Legislators in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncsl.org\/fiscal\/which-states-are-banning-data-centers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">at least 14 states<\/a> are considering moratoriums on data centers, and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sanders.senate.gov\/press-releases\/news-sanders-ocasio-cortez-announce-ai-data-center-moratorium-act\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">proposal from<\/a> Senator Bernie Sanders and US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would put data center development on hold nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>In Utah\u2019s Box Elder County, protests against a proposed 40,000-acre (16,200-hectare) data center project have led to raucous protests <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ksl.com\/article\/51493679\/box-elder-county-official-faced-death-threats-amid-contentious-data-center-debate-defends-action\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">and death threats<\/a> against county commissioners, according to local news outlet KSL. The project is backed by Shark Tank star Kevin O\u2019Leary and planned on mostly desert land used for cattle grazing.<\/p>\n<p>Texas stands in contrast to Florida, another business-friendly state, which has nevertheless pushed back against data center development. Ron DeSantis, the state\u2019s Republican governor, has called for stricter regulations on the projects.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis technology threatens to upend key parts of our economy in ways that can leave many Americans out of work and with consumers footing the bill for the cost of power-intensive data centers,\u201d he told Florida lawmakers in January.<\/p>\n<div class=\"copyright-notice quiet\">Copyright 2026 Bloomberg.<\/div>\n<p class=\"tagtag\"> <span class=\"tagtag\">Topics<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/location\/texas\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Texas<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll\" data-post=\"869761\">\n<div class=\"article-poll-vote\">\n<p>Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-no\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! 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Please tell us what you liked about it.<\/p>\n<p> <textarea placeholder=\"Enter your feedback...\"><\/textarea> <button type=\"submit\" class=\"submit\" disabled>Submit<\/button> <button class=\"cancel\">No Thanks<\/button> <\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-more-articles\">\n<p class=\"thank-you-text\">Here are more articles you may enjoy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"subscribe-banner subscribe-banner-in-content-2\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h4>The most important insurance news,in your inbox every business day.<\/h4>\n<p>Get the insurance industry&#8217;s trusted newsletter<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article 0 Comments A small Texas county outside Dallas approved a one-year moratorium on new data center and energy storage developments, pushing back against the growing number of large-scale projects fueling the artificial-intelligence boom&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[1946,2015,354,1,77],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/dallas-exurb-hits-pause-on-data-centers-in-rare-texas-rebuke.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25011"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}