LUFKIN, Texas (KETK) \u2014 East Texas government leaders and state lawmakers say the community wishes to pause data center development to learn more about the facilities\u2019 potential impacts on quality of life.<\/p>\n
As data centers continue to set up shop across Texas, people are trying to understand what impact they could have on the rural communities East Texans call home. Many people have brought their concerns to Deep East Texas Council of Governments (DETCOG) Executive Director Lonnie Hunt, who says some residents feel data centers are moving in too fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of our folks are just right now saying let\u2019s call time out, let\u2019s put the brakes on,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cLet\u2019s pause, let\u2019s make sure that we know all the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n
A rapid expansion that State Representative Joanne Shofner (R)- Nacogdoches says could be necessary if the U.S. wants to stay ahead of China in the global race for artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want them to be in charge of all of this; it would be just dangerous for a communist country to be in charge of most of the data that is going on around the world,\u201d Shofner said.<\/p>\n
That race is also leaving many East Texans with questions about the long-term impacts data centers could have on water, agriculture and their quality of life. Leaving them to turn to county leaders who have little authority to regulate the facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way a county could really have any influence over a data center would be to enter into some sort of agreement with them,\u201d Hunt said.<\/p>\n
Shofner says the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) does have some regulatory authority over data centers, but only after problems arise.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now we don\u2019t know what an issue is,\u201d Shofner said.<\/p>\n
Hunt says East Texans want to embrace new technology without sacrificing the rural way of life that defines the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we also want to protect our rural countryside and this lifestyle that we love out here in the Pineywoods of East Texas,\u201d Hunt said.<\/p>\n
He recommends anyone with concerns contact their state representative and make their voices heard before the legislature meets in Austin next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LUFKIN, Texas (KETK) \u2014 East Texas government leaders and state lawmakers say the community wishes to pause data center development to learn more about the facilities\u2019 potential impacts on quality of life. As data centers continue to set up shop across Texas, people are trying to understand what impact they could have on the rural … Continue reading Lufkin community pleads for answers amid data center race<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[164],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1518493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-28 05:48:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1518493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1518494,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518493\/revisions\/1518494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1518493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1518493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1518493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}