Travel to the vast, flat and arid plains of the Lone Star State of Texas, and you often find yourself transported back in time. Ranches, cattle auctions, small towns with just a single traffic light and the “nodding donkey” onshore oil fields that date back to the early 1900s are perpetual sights that greet you.
But today, the Texas landscape is threatened with massive change, and with just two months to go before America’s midterm elections, in some parts of the state it is leading traditional Republican supporters to abandon their party and transfer their allegiance to the Democrats instead.
Texas is already home to 137 active data centres using in excess of 7,000 megawatts of electricity as they power the AI revolution. But market intelligence company Cleanview, which tracks data centre developments across the country, reports that there are already 339 additional projects either seeking planning permission or already approved to enter operation in the state.
In American politics today, no issue is sparking more fury among voters than proposals to build data centres in their local neighbourhoods, or in nearby countryside where they like to spend their weekends hunting, shooting and fishing.
