This story is part of a partnership between KERA and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
Texas Agricultural Commissioner-elect Clayton Tucker said he’ll begin impact studies on hyperscale data centers on his first day in office.
Tucker said these studies will focus on water and energy usage, along with potential pollution.
“Air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, light pollution – basically any sort of pollution and how does it affect our crops, our livestock and our own health,” Tucker said on KERA’s North Texas Now Tuesday morning.
These studies will be made publicly available.
Tucker, 35, beat Republican candidate Nathan Sheets last week to become the first Democrat to hold the office in 36 years.
When asked whether he believed his data would be different than the data that might have been unearthed by Gov. Greg Abbott’s data center audit, Tucker said, “I don’t count my chickens until they fully hatch.”
“(The information) could be different. It might not be. We will be holding… truly independent scientific research on it,” said Tucker.
Tucker also expressed skepticism about the economic value of AI data centers. Many data center proponents argue these facilities benefit communities by generating local tax revenue.
“Well, yeah, you build the facility. But then that facility automates 100,000 jobs away. (That’s) net job losses, not net job creators,” Tucker said. “The more I learn about (AI), the more I’m thinking AI might be the real problem, not just the data centers.”
The difference between this AI “bubble” and other previous technological advances, Tucker argued, is the destruction of farmland and the environment.
“I’m not going to kill Tony to save Tom,” said Tucker. “I’m not going to treat some communities… as sacrificial lambs for other people’s economic developments.”
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