OPINION
On May 6, 2025, the San Angelo City Council approved the sale of city land to Skybox Data Centers for $50,000 per acre; a deal estimated at more than $17 million. While economic investment is welcome in West Texas, a project of this size cannot move forward without full transparency about its impact on our water, electric grid, and surrounding communities.
Massive Energy Demand Requires Regional Planning
West Texans already pay 11.9¢ to 17.7¢ per kilowatt-hour for household electricity, some of the highest residential rates in the state. At the same time, data centers are driving unprecedented strain on the grid.
In 2025 alone, industrial and data-center developers submitted over 200 gigawatts of interconnection requests more than double the peak statewide load of Texas in summer.
To keep up, Oncor is investing nearly $40 billion across its grid, including a $3 billion System Resiliency Plan, which will harden infrastructure, build out major new transmission, add smart grid technologies, strengthen cybersecurity, and support massive new high load users like data centers. New state laws even give ERCOT authority to curtail large users during emergencies due to their enormous energy footprint.
And yet, San Angelo has not released the projected power use for the Skybox facility, whether ERCOT has reviewed the load, what grid upgrades will be required, or who will pay for those upgrades, Skybox or ratepayers. Without these facts, residents cannot evaluate how this project affects their bills or their grid reliability.
Water Scarcity is Already at a Breaking Point
Water is the defining issue of our region. Big Spring is one of the only cities in the nation turning sewer water into drinking water through direct potable reuse and still faces frequent boil notices. Big Spring is also under a five-year water conservation plan because supply cannot meet existing demand.
Meanwhile, desalination plants are studying this region, but no commitments have been
made.
Skybox data centers in other regions have operated anywhere from 1.2 MW server halls to 150–300 MW hyper scale campuses, the latter using as much electricity as 150,000–300,000 homes. High density data centers often require large volumes of water for cooling, rivaling usage of small cities.
Before approval, San Angelo should release projected water usage, the cooling method being used, impacts on the Edwards Trinity aquifer, drought stage restrictions for the facility, and regional modeling that includes Big Spring, Glasscock County, and surrounding communities.
We already know our aquifers are declining. We already know our communities are under restrictions. And we already know rural families and farmers will shoulder the consequences if planning is not done responsibly.
This Is Bigger Than San Angelo. This Affects All of Us.
Data centers do not impact just one city. They impact regional water tables, regional grid reliability, ratepayers across multiple counties, farmers, ranchers, small towns, emergency response capacity, and long-term drought resilience.
A project of this scale must include regional water authorities, ERCOT, Oncor, surrounding county officials, and the communities who share this infrastructure.
CALL TO ACTION: SHOW UP WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10
The City of San Angelo Development Corporation (COSADC) will meet:
- Wednesday, December 10 at 8:30 a.m.
- East Mezzanine San Angelo City Hall
- 72 W. College Ave.
This meeting is open to the public. I am urging residents, ratepayers, farmers, ranchers, small business owners, and community leaders across San Angelo, Big Spring, Tom Green County, Glasscock County, Runnels County, Coke County, Irion County, and every community in our shared region to attend.
Our voices matter. Our water matters. Our grid reliability matters. And our future depends on decisions made right now. West Texas deserves growth that is responsible, transparent, and sustainable, not rushed
approvals without answers.
— Rev. Shiloh Salazar, Big Spring
Candidate for Texas House District 72
