On Tuesday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) stated that he agrees with what Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Texas Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton (R) have said about data centers, he believes they need to limit water consumption and not add to electric bills, and added that he has urged those building data centers to “make the benefits absolutely clear and indisputable. I’m urging them, send checks to the residents of the community, send them $100 a month, send them $500 a month, send them $1,000 a month, or, even better, say, if we build a data center in your community, for the rest of your life, your electricity bill is free, we will pay your electricity bill.”
Cruz began by saying, “I think it is critical that America win the race for AI, but I also think the concerns being raised about data centers are real and reasonable and they need to be addressed and they need to be addressed head-on.” He added that the “anti-data center movement is not entirely organic, that China is putting real money into funding this movement.”
Cruz added that he agrees with what Abbott and Paxton are saying about the issue, and “The concerns the voters have are twofold on data centers: Number one, water, number two, power. Water is a very real concern. Here’s the good news: Virtually all new data centers being built use what’s called closed-loop cooling, which means they use the same water and just circulate it over and over and over again, so their water consumption is very, very low. I agree with Gov. Abbott, who’s putting rules in place that say if you’re going to build a data center, you have to minimize your water consumption so you don’t consume too much of the water from the community, that makes sense. Number two, voters are understandably concerned about electricity prices. Electricity prices have risen 30% since 2021, and a lot of people are struggling to make ends meet. I agree with what Gov. Abbott has said, which is no new data center will be built in Texas unless the impact of that data center is zero, is absolutely not one penny added to anyone’s electricity bills, I think that makes sense.”
He continued, “And I’ll tell you, I’m urging the companies that are building these data centers to go further than that, make the benefits absolutely clear and indisputable. I’m urging them, send checks to the residents of the community, send them $100 a month, send them $500 a month, send them $1,000 a month, or, even better, say, if we build a data center in your community, for the rest of your life, your electricity bill is free, we will pay your electricity bill. That’s how you win the PR battle, is you make the benefit, suddenly, people will be like, hot diggity damn, I like that data center, because I don’t pay a power bill.”
Cruz also agreed that many new data centers do fulfill his requirements on water and power.
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