Capital Keeps Pouring In. Communities Are Closing the Gate.

HARC estimates Texas data centers consumed 25 billion gallons of water in 2025, a figure that could reach 161 billion gallons by 2030, and the state still lacks the hard data to know which number is closer to reality. The PUC's first mandatory water-use survey, set to go out this spring, is a critical step, but communities aren't waiting: Fort Worth tabled Black Mountain's $10 billion campus rezoning over water and transparency concerns, Brenham rejected a datacenter tax abatement to cheers from a packed room, and a dozen states from Oregon to Oklahoma are moving to shield ratepayers from datacenter infrastructure costs. Capital continues to flood in regardless, with SOLV Energy's $6 billion solar IPO powered by datacenter-driven backlog. The deepest risk may be the survey's biggest blind spot: it covers existing operations but not the massive pipeline of facilities under construction, meaning regulators could be locking in water commitments they can't yet see.