GUS AND PEDRO JOIN DATA CENTER BATTLE: DISTRACT FROM ASPHALT-MILLINGS GATE; BUT STATE BEAT THEM TO THE DRAW

By Juan Montoya
Special to El Rrun-Rrun

A proposal for a data center in Brownsville and the particulars about its electric and water use have not even been discussed and we already have at least two city commissioners who say they have already made up their mind that they are against the construction of one here.

City of Brownsville commissioner Pedro Cardenas has spoken out against it and assures us that his appointment to the Planning and Zoning Commissioner (independently, or does she do what she is told?) has reached the same conclusion. 

It didn't take long for fellow commissioner Gus de Leon – eager to distract residents from the asphalt-millingsGate scandal involving city materials, labor, and machinery to make road improvement on his private property right before he leased it to the Department of Homeland Security and who sleeps and wakes up with honor and integrity intact – to pipe in vowing to fight the idea and to wage holy war against it.

This two-headed Hydra tag team is now – even before we know anything about the planned data center construction – waging a jihad against them.

"Although a data center proposal has not yet been presented to the City Commission, we understand that it is expected to go before the Planning and Zoning Commission," Cardenas wrote in his FB social page."I have already spoken with my Planning and Zoning appointee, and I am glad that she shares my position. At this time, we are against the proposed data center."

But, hold the presses, haven't these gents kept up with what the State of Texas and its local representatives in the legislature – D-27 Senator Adam Hinojosa and State Rep. D-38 Erin Gamez, Brownsville – have been doing up in Austin which effectively makes their courageous stand a self-serving side show?

Cardenas states that these are his concerns: 

"Brownsville and South Texas have faced drought and water supply concerns for several years," he wrote. "Data centers can require significant amounts of water and electricity, and I do not believe our community currently has the infrastructure necessary to support a project of this size without placing additional pressure on our residents, utilities, and essential services....Until we have the water supply, electrical capacity, infrastructure, and clear answers needed to protect our residents, my position is a firm NO."

[Hey, Pedro, SpaceX had  no running water (and 13 launches later still doesn't) and they buy it from the Brownsville Public Utility Board (PUB). Would you have been against SpaceX coming because of their supposed impact on local water supplies?] 

And just FYI, this center is not the only one which has approached the city. Management can point to at least two others interested in coming here to do biz.

Your opposition sounds nice, but this is what's going in Austin.

According to the Austin Statesman, the state has already directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to require data center proponents to take concrete steps to protect residential ratepayers from the costs of data center expansion.

The PUCT is acting as we speak to make data centers pay for the electric infrastructure they need so Texas families are not stuck with the bill, to ensure that connecting data centers actually lowers residential electric bills, and to work with ERCOT on additional steps that protect ratepayers. 

Both entities are under orders to make sure that residential ratepayers across the state will not foot the bill for this industry’s growth. These actions keep electric bills affordable and protect the water these communities need. And unless they comply, no permits for the centers will be issued. Zilch.

These requirements are in place right now across Texas, so rising in courageous opposition in Brownsville matters very little. Already, several data centers have withdrawn their plans to build such centers in several cities across the state because they didn't  meet the PUCT and ERCOT directives. Once they comply, the show is on. 

The two commissioners' heroics aside, these key actions have already been taken and underway by the PUCT and ERCOT and include:

*Requiring data centers to not only pay for transmission infrastructure built to serve them but contribute toward meaningfully reducing residential electric bills.

*Adopting rules to prevent large data centers from diverting existing power away from the ERCOT grid and ensuring power is prioritized for Texas families and communities.

*Begun sweeping changes to how data centers pay for the infrastructure needed to serve them, ensuring data centers do not shift those costs onto everyday Texans or place unnecessary strain on our state's resources.

*Implemented a new interconnection screening process to prevent data centers from overburdening the grid.

The PUCT and ERCOT also recommended the following legislative changes for the upcoming legislative session:

*Expand the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act to cover large data centers so foreign actors cannot use them to threaten the Texas grid.

*Clarify the PUC's and ERCOT's authority to establish additional reliability requirements that data centers must comply with.

*Require data centers to register with the PUCT and ERCOT so the state has accurate information about their water and electricity operations.

And before we start following knee-jerk politicians, just what is a data center and why would we need one here?

 A data center is a facility that houses the computing infrastructure needed to store, process, and distribute digital information. Think of it as the “engine room” of the internet and many business applications. Do you use a cell phone, PC, Internet, or surf the social pages? You are already using a data center somewhere.

Its main purposes include: Storing data: Keeps databases, files, backups, photos, videos, and other digital information securely. It is also used for running applications: Hosts websites, business software, streaming platforms, AI models, and cloud services. Do you want SpaceX and Saronic to continue providing well-paid jobs and to attract other high-tech companies to provide jobs to local residents?

Processing information: Performs computations for tasks like financial transactions, analytics, machine learning, and scientific research.

Providing network connectivity: Connects users, devices, and services over high-speed networks.

Ensuring reliability: Uses redundant power, cooling, networking, and hardware so services stay online even if components fail.

Protecting data: Includes physical security, cybersecurity measures, fire suppression, and environmental controls.

What’s inside a data center?

Simple analogy:

Imagine a city library: Books = Data
Librarians = Servers that find and process information
Shelves = Storage systems
Hallways = Network connections
Electricity and air conditioning = Power and cooling systems

Just as a library organizes and provides access to information, a data center organizes, stores, processes, and delivers digital information to users around the world. Sure we don't want to be connected with all the protections in place?