Technology and Science21 September, 20263 min read
Gavin Newsom Signs California Data Center Rules, While Greg Abbott Halts New Texas Permits
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Newsom signed seven bills regulating data centers in California. Laws require data centers to disclose electricity cost information and prevent passing costs to ratepayers.
California and Texas move
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of new laws regulating data centers, and the laws require data centers to disclose information about electricity and water use while making data centers ineligible for environmental exemptions.
Newsom said in a statement, "While the Trump administration moves toward deregulation, communities are left to deal with the consequences — higher electricity demand, grid constraints, water use, and pollution," and he added, "With these laws, we are ensuring that Californians remain in the driver's seat — and that those profiting from data centers aren't doing so at our expense."
In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to halt all new permits for data center development while the group that operates the state's electrical grid carries out an audit.
Abbott said in a statement, "Simply put, Texans must come first," and he added, "Until they do, TCEQ will issue no permits sought by data center projects," referring to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and the Texas Water Development Board.
The Data Center Coalition said it was "disappointed" to hear Newsom had signed the California laws, and it warned that the impacts for the industry in the state would be "sweeping and significant."
Pennsylvania opposition deepens
TechCrunch reported that a new report from the nonprofit Data & Society offers a deeper look at what is activating opposition to data centers, and the report is the result of 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork by researchers who interviewed 44 Pennsylvanians between 2024 and 2026. Livia Garofalo, a Data & Society researcher, told TechCrunch, "One of the strengths of ethnography and doing research on the ground for an extended period of time is piercing the bubble of AI hype," and she added that people were making sense of the dissonances between AI being "the next inevitable industrial revolution" and fears about AI. TechCrunch said Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro headlined a July 2025 summit celebrating $90 billion in data center and AI infrastructure investment, and a year later Shapiro signed an order imposing new requirements on data center projects and removing them from a regulatory fast-track initiative.
Maia Woluchem, a program director at Data & Society who co-authored the report, said, "People in Pennsylvania especially have incredible experience with industrial change, have deep lineages of industrial trauma, enough to sniff when things don't feel right to them." TechCrunch also described the Data Center Coalition as setting up websites like "Pennsylvania Connects" and spending at least $19,000 lobbying the state government last year, while researchers said resistance has grown in ways they called post-partisan rather than bipartisan.
Ratepayer and tax fights
KQED said Newsom signed seven bills into law on Monday, including provisions aimed at preventing data centers from passing on their electricity costs to other ratepayers and a new requirement for developers to disclose their projected water usage.
Newsom said in a statement, "With these laws, we are ensuring that Californians remain in the driver’s seat — and that those profiting from data centers aren’t doing so at our expense," and KQED reported that Senate Bill 886 and Assembly Bill 2383 would require the California Public Utilities Commission to create new power rates for data centers.
KQED reported that Assembly Bill 2469 would prohibit local approval of data centers until the developer discloses the facility’s projected water usage, and it said the bills passed largely on party-line votes in the face of opposition from business groups such as the Data Center Coalition.
In Nevada, The Center Square reported that Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo issued an executive order to limit tax incentives for data centers by tying development to an education fund, and it said the order received mixed reactions from education groups.
Lombardo said in announcing the executive order on Friday, "We have a responsibility to make sure our schools have the resources they need to educate Nevada’s children," and Attorney General Aaron Ford argued the order did not go far enough, while Alexander Marks said, "Our position would be that Nevada shouldn't be subsidizing an enormously profitable industry."