EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — With three large data centers now in development in the El Paso region, including Meta’s $1.5 billion facility in Northeast El Paso, residents and local leaders are bringing their concerns to the forefront on what they believe will be a substantial strain on vital resources like water and energy.
State Rep. Mary Gonzalez, D-Clint, joined KTSM 9 News anchor Andy Morgan on Wednesday, March 18, where she called on Meta to provide more transparency on their conservation pledges to local leaders, utility companies, and the community.
“I would say there should be a moratorium on letting any of these facilities continue, especially not letting anything new come to our region,” said Rep. Gonzalez, who represents Texas House District 75. “If we don’t address the current problems now, we will become an open market for data centers that will continue to come here because they’ll say, ‘El Paso is easy and rolled over. We’ll just build another one, and another one, and another one.’ What will happen to the future of our kids when there isn’t enough water and the electricity bills are 100 percent more than they are now.”…