A new survey conducted by the Hobby School of Public Affairs found that 99 percent of Texans polled supported requiring data center companies to “pay for the electricity grid upgrades needed to serve their data centers.”
The study, released Tuesday by the University of Houston, asked 2,000 likely voters across varying demographics and political orientation to rate their concern regarding “the impacts of data centers in the Texas communities where they are built” when it comes to air pollution, electricity prices, noise pollution, power outages, and water supply.
When asked about impacts on electricity prices, water supply, and power outages, nearly 70 percent of respondents stated they were “extremely or very concerned,” with only around 15 percent reporting little or no concern at all.
“The major split we saw was along partisan lines, with 93% of Democrats and 70% of independent voters saying they are very or extremely concerned about the impact on electricity prices,” Hobby School Senior Research Fellow Mark P. Jones said. “Among Republicans, 51% reported those high levels of concern.”
Noise and air pollution showed a marginal improvement in concern, with about 53 percent of respondents reporting they were “extremely or very concerned” about both forms of pollution. Respondents who reported otherwise were split nearly even on whether they were “somewhat concerned” or “not very or not at all concerned.”
Despite the reported concerns, respondents were somewhat conflicted on the degree of beneficial impact data centers will have on their local communities.
“Technological advancement” and “improved electrical infrastructure” received the most positive outlook from respondents, with about 45 percent and 40 percent of respondents, respectively, reporting they believed data centers would have a beneficial impact in those areas.
“Tax revenue” and “job creation” received bleaker results. Thirty-eight percent of respondents stated they believed data centers would have little to no beneficial impact on tax revenue, while 40 percent reported the same for job creation.
A majority of respondents also reported that a new data center in their community would have negative impacts on the value of their homes, with only 39 percent reporting it would either increase or have no impact on home value.
“Public officials who supported the buildout of data centers have touted the benefits for jobs, tax revenues and the overall economy, but the majority of Texas voters clearly disagree,” Hobby School Senior Executive Director Reneé Cross said regarding the results.
Most notably, 99 percent of respondents supported “a policy that would require data center companies [to] pay for the electricity grid upgrades needed to serve their data centers.” Just 1 percent opposed such a policy.
A policy limiting the number of data centers in Texas also received substantial support, with nearly 80 percent supporting the proposal.
When asked about AI and its impact on society, education, and the U.S. economy in the next 10 years, a majority of respondents stated that they believed the technology would do more to hurt these domains. However, respondents were “relatively evenly split” on whether AI would do more to help or hurt them personally.
The results come after a similar survey recently showed that nearly half of North Texans polled were “uneasy” about the increasing use of artificial intelligence in people’s lives.
