State vs. local control over data centers under debate as Fort Worth considers moratorium 19%
By Cecilia Lenzen28%
8/3/2026, 6:02:05 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 20 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Pessimism Bias, and Biased Writer Voice, with Optimism Bias as the most egregious example at 12% saturation with 192 hits. Analysis detected 1,292 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,595 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 27.5% and a BS Rank of 19% (22,717 of 27,733 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 81.90% of the article peer group.
Residents from Forest Hill and Fort Worth filled a conference room March 11 where Black Mountain CEO Rhett Bennett and engineering consultant Bob Riley hosted a town hall on a planned data center.
(Nicole Lopez | Fort Worth Report)
Fort Worth resident Sue Weston has always considered herself “all for business.”
As the booming data center industry comes to Fort Worth and surrounding areas, she understands the economic benefits that developers and city leaders say the projects will bring.
But as an environmentalist, Weston worries about the possible side effects on Fort Worth’s natural resources and the quality of life of her family and neighbors.
Weston owns the garden center and event venue Weston Gardens, which sits adjacent to the $10 billion data center project led by energy conglomerate Black Mountain in southeast Fort Worth.
In recent months, Weston joined a growing chorus of Tarrant County residents and data center skeptics calling for strict regulations, a temporary pause or an outright ban on data center development.
At local government meetings and community town halls, residents have urged elected officials to pump the brakes on data center projects in Fort Worth, research their impact on the environment and come up with thoughtful ways to regulate the developments.
As Fort Worth City Council returns on Aug. 4 from its summer recess to renew the discussion around data centers, Weston said she feels disappointed that city leaders haven’t acted with more urgency.
She hopes the council’s traditionally business-friendly stance on economic development doesn’t outweigh community concerns as members consider a temporary moratorium.
“Yes, we need to move ahead, and we want to have industries, but we can also — being the 10th largest (city in the U.S.) — honestly, have our pick of what industries,” Weston said, adding of city council members that, “They’ve always just been pro-business, and some of these things are just so big that you have to step up and have leadership go, ‘No, this is not really what we want for the city.’”
State lawmakers are also meeting about data centers as they prepare for the 90th Texas Legislature to convene in January.
Gov.
Greg Abbott last year welcomed data centers to Texas, which he called the “epicenter of AI development,” but he has since suggested ending the state’s tax exemption for the centers and called for a ban on them in rural neighborhoods .
On Tuesday, Abbott announced a pause on new data centers in Texas, directing state regulatory agencies to audit all the proposed projects that would connect to the state’s electric grid.
Here’s where Fort Worth’s data centers are — and where developers look to build others
Weston remains skeptical that sweeping statewide regulations would better serve Fort Worth residents than policies developed by city leaders who live and work locally, but she’s running out of patience as projects continue to emerge in the area.
“I think they don’t want to really rock that boat, and I think this is such a big thing that they’re going to have to,” Weston said.
A majority of Fort Worth council members said they support a temporary moratorium.
After discussing how the process works Aug. 4 , they plan to vote Aug. 11 on whether to launch the moratorium.
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker, who has not said publicly whether she supports the moratorium, looks forward to continuing the discussion on data centers with the council, her spokesperson said via email.
The city manager’s office is declining interviews about the topic until after the council discussion Tuesday, a spokesperson said.
State vs. local control
If approved, Fort Worth’s moratorium wouldn’t go into effect until the end of the year because of timeline requirements mandated by state law.
Decisions on new data center projects would be suspended for 90 days with the option to extend the pause for an additional 90 days.
Meanwhile, the state legislature convenes Jan.
12.
Some residents and officials have asked Abbott to convene a special legislative session on data centers this fall, arguing that the topic merits an urgent response and that Texans should know where their elected officials stand on regulations before the November midterm elections.
“I would much rather like to see a special session happen now, so we can know who is going to stand for local control before their ballots are cast,” said state Sen.
Taylor Rehmet, a Democrat representing most of Tarrant County.
“The Texas public deserves that.
They deserve to see which folks are going to actually stand up for what they say.”
Rehmet took office in February after winning the historically Republican-held Texas Senate District 9 seat left vacant by Kelly Hancock, who was tapped to serve as acting state comptroller but has since resigned.
Rehmet, serving the remainder of Hancock’s term, is back on the ballot in November facing the same opponent as last year: Leigh Wambsganss, a longtime conservative activist and executive with the Southlake-based wireless service provider Patriot Mobile.
Wambsganss said “it’s probably not realistic” to host a special legislative session before the midterms but deferred to Abbott’s judgment on whether to call one.
Both Rehmet and Wambsganss support a statewide moratorium to give legislators additional time to research data centers and craft regulations, they said in interviews with the Fort Worth Report.
Both favor ending state tax exemptions for data centers, a proposal also supported by Abbott last month.
“I don’t like it when government picks winners and losers, giving this business tax abatements and not that business,” Wambsganss said.
“Businesses need to stand on their own, and data centers (are) an example of that.”
If Rehmet wins in November and makes it to his first legislative session, he said, he plans to work on repealing the Death Star bill, a 2023 state law that made it illegal for cities and counties to adopt local ordinances that contradict or supersede state regulations.
He wants to give city and county governments “final say in what happens in their own backyards.”
Wambsganss, who also said she wants local control over data centers, said she plans to draft or support legislation with “reasonable expectations” to protect the area’s water supply but added that she wants to avoid unintended consequences such as local government overreach.
Can proposed data center moratorium in Fort Worth lead to meaningful, long-term solutions?
Dan Diorio is vice president of state policy and government affairs for the Virginia-based Data Center Coalition, which lobbies for policies that support such centers and touts their economic benefits to state and local officials.
As public scrutiny over data center development heightens across the state, the coalition is meeting with local government officials to share information and address misconceptions, he said.
Diorio said the coalition wants to help shape “good policy that will keep Texas the world’s leader in digital infrastructure.
“This has long been, I think, Texas’ reputation and certainly something we’ve experienced is Texas taking practical approaches, trying to balance out these concerns but also adhering to Texas values of economic development and a strong business climate that has made it, you know, the number one state in the country for business,” Diorio said in a phone interview.
Public participation
At a Fort Worth council meeting in June, assistant city manager Jesica McEachern said city staff are closely monitoring Texas Senate and House committee hearings to keep tabs on data center legislation.
“Just know that the state is going to take up this industry, or the development around it, and we may see changes coming up next year.
If we do, we’ll come evaluate those changes and make sure we are always in compliance with state law,” McEachern told the council.
“But we think it’s important that we act sooner rather than later, and that we take a look at ‘What should we be doing here in Fort Worth now?’
as opposed to waiting on the state next year in the legislative session.”
The zoning regulations she recommended at the time were tabled after the city’s zoning commission called for stricter regulations and council members came out in favor of a moratorium.
As staff continue their research on a new set of regulations to propose, some council members have also suggested a community-led task force to help do that.
Such a task force could prove to be a constructive way to address public concerns and give residents a seat at the table during the decision-making process, said Larry Schooler, a communications professor at the University of Texas at Austin who researches best practices for public participation in government policymaking.
The key to a successful task force, Schooler said, is clearly defined parameters.
Council members should think carefully and critically about what they want the task force to accomplish, what the timeline for completion should be and how best to represent the various stakeholders.
Whether at the state or local level, Schooler said, the coming months present an opportunity for the public and their elected officials to engage in meaningful conversations about the future of the city and the state.
Although supportive of a citizen-led task force and hopeful for its potential influence, Weston said she’s getting tired of waiting for the government to “start listening.”
“I’m hopeful that they’ll decide to be leaders and step up and do the right thing,” Weston said of city council.
“But I don’t know, and I’m not any more confident about the state government.”
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report.
Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org .
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7speakers60%attributed speech643writer words
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81%flagged-word coverageDan Diorio
106 attributed words11% of attributed speech14% writer coverage
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