July 4th 2025 Texas Floods: So Much Loss & So Little Information

Vanity Fair ran a timely story on last year's flash flood in the Texas Hill County.  It's a disaster where some public officials clearly failed to prepare, to effectively respond and to take proper account for their actions/non-actions.  

On June 3rd Kerr County's Assistant County Attorney responded to my public information request for documents indicating the county evaluated their disaster response to the July 4th flooding that killed 139 people, 119 in Kerr County.   His message is below:

On May 28, 2026, Kerr County received via email a request from you pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act (TPIA), Chapter 552 of the Texas Government Code. Your request states: 

Please provide copies of any disaster evaluation/ after action report regarding Kerr County's emergency management response on July 4, 2025. This request is being submitted for all County Commissioners, all department heads (including Information Technology) and the County Attorney’s Office. 

In partial response, Kerr County has completed its search for records responsive to your request for the Sheriff’s Office, all County Commissioners, Information Technology, Road & Bridge, Engineering, and the County Attorney’s Office. 

After a diligent search of files, records, and information systems reasonably likely to contain responsive materials, these departments and/or department heads have no records responsive to your request. 

We will provide you with an updated response once all other departments have concluded their searches for responsive documents. 

Notice of Obligations Under the Act, a governmental body is not required to create new information, perform legal research, or answer questions in response to a request. A governmental body is only required to provide information that is already in existence at the time the request is received. (See Tex. Att'y Gen. Op. Nos. JM-672 (1987), OR2014-04746). 

Status As no responsive records exist in these offices and/or maintained by these department heads, those departments consider this request fulfilled and closed.

Last fall I'd submitted a public information request for documents indicating Kerr County's conducting disaster drills under the tenure of Emergency Management Coordinator William "Dub" Thomas.  That request also had no records responsive to the request.

Kerr County did not drill for a flash flood disaster and it did not evaluate its response to the deadly July 4th flash flood event.  These are basic competencies in the disaster response world.  

I await Kerr County's response from all other departments and reached out to the Assistant County Attorney several days ago.  He may not have appreciated my question on June 3rd:

As Assistant County Attorney do you find it odd that your organization never conducted a review of its response for the flash flood disaster that occurred on 7-4-25?

There is another oddity, the strange way Kerr County does not have one public information official but one per County Department and County Commissioner.  I learned this when I submitted the May 28, 2026 public information request.  

Kerr County does not have a general county-wide TPIA officer, but rather each elected official and department maintains their own TPIA officer. Please clarify to which department or elected official that you are directing this TPIA request. Please be aware that if we do not receive a written response from you within 61 days, then this request will be deemed withdrawn.

The Texas Attorney General's Office under Ken Paxton shows "no results" for Kerr County in their Public Information Coordinator database.

Local elected officials and County staff were charged with and paid to effectively respond when disasters strike.  That did not happen.  

What the County failed to provide, Vanity Fair did:

Around 2:50 a.m. on July 4, a two-dispatcher team at the Kerr­ville 911 center started getting calls for help. Between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., recordings show that they apparently received 106 frantic life-or-death pleas for rescue. 

The NWS has since released a detailed summary of the night of the floods. The report states that the Austin/San Antonio Weather Forecast Office (WFO) tried calling the Kerr County Sheriff’s Office and the Kerr County emergency coordinator around 3:40 a.m., two and a half hours after the first flash flood warning. (Neither the sheriff nor the emergency management coordinator, who announced his retirement in March, responded to a request for comment.) 

The sheriff didn’t receive a call until 4:20 and didn’t arrive at the sheriff’s office until around 5 a.m. The emergency management coordinator was woken up by his wife around 5:30 a.m.; the WFO couldn’t reach him until 6:19 a.m.

The State of Texas knows exactly what happened as it took over the response effort.  There already is a report card, 119 Kerr County deaths and 139 overall.  

It's hard to see where there has been any accountability for local officials who failed their constituents.  

The State of Texas floods and it tends to flood more in El Nino years.  We enter this potential flood season with a black mark, a significant deficiency, haunted by ineffectiveness and incompetence of the people charged with intervening on our behalf and state officials charged with holding them accountable.

Shannon Dropping Humana Medicare Advantage

A Shannon MyChart message from CEO Shane Plymell informed me that Shannon Medical Center would no longer participate in Humana Medicare Advantage come June 30, 2026.  

When I look at Humana paperwork (EOBs) showing what little they actually paid for my care, I understand why Shannon would make such a decision.  

Medicare allows me to switch insurance companies in such a situation.  I wanted to know which insurers Shannon accepts in the Medicare Advantage arena and when those contracts expire.  I was told that information is not available.  

I asked that my request be shared with decision makers, simply that someone asked for that information.  The answer?  That's not possible.  One might expect an organization focused on "patient centered" care to at least pass on a patient request.  

Medicare informed me that Shannon accepts Medicare Advantage plans from United Healthcare and Blue Cross/Blue Shield, but could not tell me how long that might last.

Humana is yet to inform me of their looming nonparticipation with my healthcare provider.  

We are in the age of information and no one wants to share.  

Letter to San Angelo City Council re: Data Centers

June 2, 2026

Dear Mayor and Members of City Council,

In December 2025 I filed a public information request re: incentives and subsidies for the Skybox Data Center. It remains with the Texas Attorney General’s office.

The City has partnered with Skybox and its developer, Emergent Data Centers, since early 2025. This “exceptional municipal partnership built for speed”, Emergent’s promotional description, strangely has no documents associated with it from the city side.

Emergent CEO Chris Sumter informed the audience at the April public meeting that he has developed numerous data centers and sold them (making handsome profits). He named several private equity firms, which I will generally refer to as the Lords of Capital for the remainder of this letter. The Lords desire big profits and frequently need public subsidies for those to occur.

A data center power generation project outside of Pecos. Texas is “contingent upon several forms of economic development” to achieve the project’s “attractive returns.” It’s called a hurdle rate and the Lords don’t provide capital funding unless that is achieved.

The economic development agreement with Skybox is under negotiation. Skybox won’t go ahead with the project without ERCOT approval and a committed tenant. Financing for the project depends on those as well. That means three different hurdle rates need to be met, Skybox’s, the tenant’s and the Lords of Capital’s. Blue Owl financed a number of prior Skybox projects.

Time will reveal if there are local incentives or subsidies for Skybox on top of massive State tax breaks. Whoever is negotiating the 380 economic development agreement should have some idea as to the types and size of incentives offered by other Texas communities. The City researched data center zoning and shared that with citizens. It is yet to do so re: incentives.

The tenant gets a state sales tax break on the expensive hardware and many building systems it needs to operate their data center.

https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/data-centers/ 

The following items, if necessary and essential to the operation of a qualifying large data center project, are eligible for the exemption when purchased by a qualifying owner, operator or occupant: 

• electricity;* 

• an electrical system; 

• a cooling system; 

• an emergency generator; 

• hardware or a distributed mainframe computer or server; 

• a data storage device; 

• network connectivity equipment; 

• a rack, cabinet and raised floor system; 

• a peripheral component or system; 

• software; 

• a mechanical, electrical or plumbing system that is necessary to operate any tangible personal property described above; 

• any other item of equipment or system necessary to operate any tangible personal property described above, including a fixture; and 

• a component part of any tangible personal property described above.

Predatory TechGods will occupy this data center. Will it be Meta who allowed child sexual predators seventeen strikes before banning them?  Will it be Microsoft who plotted to make its AI more addictive?

High hurdle rate on profits, low propensity to protect children, tech offerings designed to maximize addiction – these are the organizations you are inviting to set up in San Angelo proper. 

Once the three hurdles are achieved, this project will flood forth as a fait accompli. It will come down from Twin Mountain as a divine offering from the Lords of Capital and their TechGod occupant. And in five years or less it will be sold or refinanced, because that is the real business going on here, the buying and selling of companies. 

It is not unheard of for the Lords of Capital to abandon their liege, to walk away, to not throw good money after bad, to hand the keys back to creditors (who may or may not want them). Thus, the City should be prepared to take possession of such a building. 

It wouldn’t be the first time something with great promise did not pan out. Does anyone remember MedHab, former Mayor Alvin New’s investment and future creator of some 400 San Angelo jobs? That future never arrived. 

Just as the city funds the closure of a landfill cell, it should consider setting aside money to safely manage down the facility and its contents, should both the developer and TechGod occupant walk away. 

As an over twenty year resident of District #1, I currently reside in a community just outside Tom Green County. It happens to be in the impact zone of the proposed Beacon Data Center in Dove Creek. Our water and electricity will be directly impacted and air quality will depend on the wind direction.

We have solar power with battery backup, installed after Winter Storm Uri when we went without power for five days in bitter cold. None of the initial financial projections came true. 

The State of Texas allowed electrical providers to add delivery charges and Reliant pays us half of the amount they did just a year and half ago for power we send to the grid. There is no competition for our solar/battery power.  We take whatever the Texas electrical cartel gives, an ever shrinking amount, while their fees to us soar. 

I imagine the city will be treated likewise by Skybox/Emergent/Lords of Capital. It’s their hurdle rate the State of Texas is subsidizing.  The city may do likewise. 

My prayer is the Lords of Capital lose interest in funding these projects. No financing, no project. 

Thank you for the opportunity to share these thoughts.

Note:  I posted this on my other blog, PEUReport, which focuses on private equity underwriters (PEU), a major category within the Lords of Capital.

Update 6-14-26:  Futurism reported:

John O’Farrell — former general partner at the mammoth investment firm Andreessen Horowitz — chastised his former colleagues in the tech industry for putting AI hype before the common good. 

As the first outside general partner ever hired by Andreessen Horowitz in 2010, O’Farrell’s departure is significant, and his warning for his former colleagues is telling. 

At the core of O’Farrell’s complaint is the fact that tech firms and their financial backers have invested unfathomable sums of money in an attempt to influence top US politicians who should, in a better system, be impartially regulating AI. 

“I believe this attempted political infiltration by the AI industry will fail,” O’Farrell explained. “A backlash is building, and it will become fiercer when voters learn that a handful of billionaires are altogether spending nine figures, apparently in an effort to try to stop debates about regulation from further developing.” 

Continuing, the former partner explained that he’d been approached by groups interested in exposing the tech industry’s effort to “buy political influence,” adding that he “may contribute my own money to these public awareness efforts.”

The Lords of Capital want your retirement savings to fund data center expansion.  

Cipher Digital on Colchis, Data Center #3

Cipher Digital's 2025 annual report had much to say about their Colchis project, Tom Green County's third possible data center.   It is a joint venture although Cipher Digital never shares their joint venture partner(s) or from whom they purchased their majority interest.

The Tom Green County Appraisal District shows four tracts of land owned by Colchis.  They are next to the land currently leased by SkyBox Data Centers for their project, which is currently being marketed by Emergent Data Centers as SA1.  Both sited in that location to access a large AEP electrical substation.  

Texas electricity regulator ERCOT is running a Batch Zero competition for the state's data center explosion.  That means SkyBox and Cipher are competing for the same monstrous amount of electricity.  

Cipher's Annual Report states: 

Colchis Site 

In November 2025, we purchased a majority interest in a joint venture entity to develop a new HPC site in West Texas capable of providing 1-GW, referred to as Colchis (the “Colchis Site”), under which we expect to hold a majority equity interest subject to final lease and development terms. The Colchis Site includes a fully executed direct interconnection agreement with American Electric Power (“AEP”) for a dual interconnection facility targeting energization in 2028 and options to buy approximately 620 acres of land adjacent to an existing substation.

Redeemable noncontrolling interest 

Redeemable noncontrolling interest represent a 47% noncontrolling ownership in Colchis, variable interest entity (“VIE”), and a consolidated subsidiary of the Company. The entity is deemed a VIE as it does not have sufficient equity-at-risk to finance its activities. As the managing member, the Company has the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact Colchis’s economic performance. Accordingly, the Company was determined to be the primary beneficiary of the VIE and therefore consolidates the entity in its consolidated financial statements. Redeemable noncontrolling interests are presented outside of permanent equity on the consolidated balance sheets as they are redeemable by the holders of the noncontrolling interest and the redemption is outside the control of the Company. The redeemable noncontrolling interests were initially recorded at their issuance date fair value of $30.3 million. The Company subsequently measures the carrying amount of the redeemable noncontrolling interests at the greater of (i) the initial carrying amount, increased or decreased for the noncontrolling interest’s share of net income or loss and its share of other comprehensive income or loss, and dividends or (ii) the redemption value. For interests that are  redeemable in the future, we recognize changes in the redemption value immediately as they occur.

Note 8:  Investment in Joint Ventures

In October 2025, the Company purchased 53% of the equity in Colchis LLC (“Colchis”), a joint venture of a potential 1 GW site in Texas, the “Colchis Site.” The Company is the managing member and consolidates Colchis, and records redeemable noncontrolling interest for the minority interest in the site. The Company deems the noncontrolling interest to be redeemable due to certain clauses in the agreement, which could trigger the redemption of the noncontrolling shares upon events outside of the Company's control. 

There were no changes in ownership of Colchis LLC for the year ended December 31, 2025 after the Company’s original investment.

Note 9:  Intangible Assets

 

The Company recorded amortization expense related to intangible assets of $0.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2025, $0.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2024, and $0.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2023. During the year ended December 31, 2025, the Company acquired strategic contracts for $56.6 million and $12.6 million related to the development of the Colchis and Ulysses sites, respectively, and wrote off $1.2 million of capitalized software related to software projects the Company is no longer pursuing.

There are mixed messages between the Annual Report and other Cipher corporate communications.  A November 3, 2025 press release stated:

In addition, Cipher today announced the formation of a joint entity to develop a 1-gigawatt (“GW”) site, named “Colchis”, in West Texas. Under the terms of the agreement, Cipher is expected to provide the majority of the financing, which would result in approximately 95% equity ownership assuming standard lease and development terms in a future HPC lease. 

The Colchis site includes a fully executed 1-GW Direct Connect Agreement with American Electric Power (“AEP”), under which AEP will construct the necessary dual interconnection facility for a targeted energization in 2028. Construction of the interconnection facility will proceed in parallel with ERCOT's final review and approval. The 620-acres of land under option sit adjacent to the existing substation, and the site has all the necessary characteristics for development of an HPC data center.

One said "purchased" the joint venture while the other said "formed."  One said 53% equity while the other said 95%.

I wonder if AEP's dual interconnection facility garners them an equity stake in Colchis.  It seems strange that AEP would pick one data center over another at this stage.  Shouldn't they work with whichever was approved by ERCOT via Batch Zero?  It feels like a thumb on the scale.  

However it is Texas where there are lots of thumbs and even more scales.  

Update 6-11-26:  It appears even more political heavyweights are behind Colchis and Cipher Digital.  The Lords of Capital have arrived with expensive chip financing.  Apollo amd Blackstone will fund Broadcom chips for Fluidstack in Texas.  Fluidstack is a major Cipher Digital customer.  Anthropic is in the political mix as well for Fluidstack.

Texans Feel AI-Moed

Tom Green County residents are already facing the force of federal incentives and state of Texas subsidies luring hyperscale data centers to our area.  The imbalance may become greater if the federal government takes equity stakes in the major AI companies.

Four data centers are considering locating here, one in San Angelo proper and the other three in the county.  The Texas Tribune reported that nearly half of the 248 planned data centers will be outside of cities, in unincorporated areas.  

People in our area remember the shale boom.   The Carlyle Group's Jeff Currie compared the two in their voracious need for capital.  Abilene's experience with Lancium -"Stargate" is an amplified echo of our experience in the shale boom with rising rents, absurdly expensive hotel rooms and dangerous road conditions.  Many new workers arrived with their addictions and large dog breeds.  

That is our future if the State of Texas via ERCOT deems a project worthy of power and the Lords of Capital provide the necessary funding.  

Irion County Commissioners have two items on their upcoming agenda for June 9th at 9:00am:

6.  Options for having input on both public and private industrial/technological development within the county (Executive/Closed Session)

7.  Tax abatement agreements for economic development within Irion County (Executive/Closed Session)

"Data centers have become shockingly unpopular" is one recent headline and Texans have virtually no say as to whether they can come, where they can locate or how much local resources they can usurp.

That means a name change....and the TechGods offer "AI Factories."  Same thing, just slightly more attuned to economic development.  It also fits better with their desire to charge a piece rate for each AI product that comes off the factory floor.  TechGods have all the momentum with their control of state and federal government.

Responses vary across the country.  One mayor insulted data center opponents for the look of their homes.  The State of Ohio suspended giant tax breaks for data centers to evaluate their actual impact.

There is a very short window for federal and state elected officials to intervene and allow communities to strike more of a balance.  An AI equity stake by Uncle Sam is decidedly counter to that.  

So it should not be surprising that many Texans feel trapped in an AI-MO that is running us into a dangerous construction zone at high speed.  Let us out so we can never do this again.  Please.

Update 6-9-26:  At his time Irion County does not have any data centers interested, according to one county official.  There is a battery energy storage system project and new high voltage power lines are planned for parts of the county.   

It appears Irion County Commissioner were educated from outside attorneys on their rights, responsibilities and limitations in considering new industrial/technological employers.  As the County had not updated their tax abatement program in many years, this item needed attention should the County wish to offer abatements to future projects, like the BESS facility.

Tom Green County: Data Center Site #3 Revealed

San Angelo Chamber of Commerce executive Michael Looney stated that four data centers are interested in the area.  He did so at an Economic Development Board meeting.  

Two of the projects are known to the public.  A third has been revealed.

1)  The Skybox/Emergent in San Angelo is actively being marketed.  

2)  Beacon Data Centers expressed interest and met with the community, which clearly told them to look elsewhere.  They returned and met with Tom Green County Commissioners.

The other two sites have not been named, by interested party or location in the county. 

3) Cipher Digital (below is how I learned this). 

I sent a letter outlining my data center concerns to City Council (the subject of a future post).  San Angelo Mayor Tom Thompson replied:

If the regulations are put in place, the discussion moves to the economic impact, benefits, and risks.

I believe the data center project adjacent to Skybox continues to move forward, as it does not have the restrictions the city has in place. 

The political climate has kept that project clear of the city, which has had the opposite effect of the coalition's intent of regulatory guidelines. 

ERCOT and AEP appear to be prioritizing the non-city property project for power allotments.

A data center next to Skybox/Emergent would be the third location (however not in city limits like Skybox).  

I followed up and learned that site is a potential data center for Cipher Digital.  

In a recent CNBC interview Cipher Digital's CEO noted their announced pipeline will tap the Texas electrical grid (i.e. not provide their own power).

Cipher Digital's CEO noted his company's land holdings in energy abundant West Texas.  

He did not mention his company's consideration of "private land a quarter mile east of" the proposed Skybox/Emergent site in Northeast San Angelo, just outside of city limits, but his corporate documents show a number of Texas projects.  

Cipher has a project known as Mikeska in Doole which is past Paint Rock.  I don't know if that's a quirk of landowner addresses.   Time will reveal if Mikeska is the site close to Skybox or not.

Cipher Digital has a Lancium (Stargate-Abilene) like history.  It began as a bitcoin miner taking advantage of stranded renewable energy.  They switched goldrushes from bitcoin to AI and demand is off the charts.  

At their recent meeting Tom Green County Commissioners tried to steer Beacon Data Centers to this part of town, however Joseph Shovlin did not seem receptive to a move from their current site at the intersection of Highway 2335 and Highway 67 given its access to Spring Creek for water use and discharging treated water.  He also saw proximity to the railroad as another plus.  

Shovlin showed his ignorance when he assumed the local community could absorb 1,200 new construction workers easily.  Beacon has no plans to provide temporary housing.   

One month ago Chamber of Commerce executive Michael Looney interviewed Tom Green County Judge Lane Carter about business growth in the area and specifically addressed data centers.  They addressed the issue of power/electricity needed by data centers.  Judge Carter cited solar and wind power, as well as abundant natural gas.

While the state rolls out the red carpet to power hungry and water usurping data centers, it turned our residential solar power system with battery backup into a nonperformer.  

At a time when we should be getting top dollar for the power generated Reliant is literally giving us nickels when before they gave dimes.  Texas rates went up 7%.  Reliant cut what they pay us in half (50%).

Cipher will also use water, I imagine from the City of San Angelo given their proximity.

Data center water usage (Beacon) - 400 acre feet per year.   Over 3 data centers that's 1,200 acre feet 

Water usage for 3,600 construction workers (1,200 per data center) - 730 acre feet per year

The running total is 2,000 new acre feet of water.  Beacon's Dove Creek Technology Center promised not to drill wells and impact groundwater.  Beacon's Westline Energy & Infrastructure will use groundwater for facility use.  Water will be needed for the power generation side (not factored into the water projections above).  

The Cipher Digital CEO interview is below for those who wish to view it.  Pay attention to what he says about Tier I vs Tier III sites:

Is anybody fighting mad?  To be clear I am speaking about the non-violent kind of standing up.  From my perspective the rules keep changing and not in the little guys favor.

AI Data Centers/Power Plants are flocking to Texas because of tax breaks in the Big Beautiful Bill and the chance to bypass state sales tax for extremely large capital outlays.  These incentives were set up by federal and state leaders, not local officials.  

San Angelo had a West Texas Utilities power plant on Lake Nasworthy and it discharged its cooling water into "Hot Water Slough."  Now such facilities will be located within the data center complex.

Our federal elected officials need to hear from constituents.  So do our state elected officials.  Those of us who lived through the Shale Boom know exactly what is coming.  Abilene is showing us that very thing at the moment.

Violence is never a solution.  Make your position clear to your representatives,  Thank heaven our local officials listen.  What is happening in many cases is beyond their control.

Federal and state officials clearly want to change our way of life.  Ask them to strike some kind of balance, because currently none exists.  

Update 6-6-26:  Cipher Digital has a major stockholder V3 Holdings, a Singapore investment firm.  V3 owns 15% of Cipher's stock.

Update 6-7-26:  Cipher refers to its San Angelo project as Colchis:

Cipher also formed a joint venture in West Texas to develop a new 1-gigawatt site called “Colchis.” Cipher will finance most of the project and expects to retain 95% ownership. The site features a 1-gigawatt Direct Connect Agreement with American Electric Power to construct a dual interconnection facility, scheduled for energization in 2028. The 620-acre site is next to an existing substation and intended for high-performance computing data center use.

It's a 1 GW data center.

Cipher has information about its Colchis project in its 2025 Annual Report and other SEC filings.

Beacon Plans to Take Ground Water

Tom Green County Commissioners Court heard from two people yesterday regarding the proposed Beacon Data Center in Dove Creek.  Local attorney and Owner/Contributing Editor for The Concho Observer Jon Mark Hogg spoke on behalf of Beacon and introduced Vice President and co-founder Joseph Shovlin.  

The project changed names since the public meeting in Dove Creek.  It's now Westline Energy & Infrastructure.

Shovlin talked about water but actually went back on his prior promise to not drill wells and only use surface water.  In April he said "we are not going to take your well water."  It's now the source for daily facility needs with their "Potable Water:  On Site Well."

This change calls into question Beacon's standards of leadership.  Early promise made, early promise broken.

This leads us to our final slide, the disclaimer.

Everything is preliminary, until it isn't.

The promise was the project would not take ground water.  Gone.  The promise is the project won't take grid power but will connect their power generation to the grid to supply power when needed.  Subject to disclaimer.

I hope they get the 5 cents per kilowatt hour that Reliant pays for household solar/battery power generation, but that would break their hurdle rate and they wouldn't be able to flip the project in five years.

Two local media sites, San Angelo Live and The Concho Observer, have key people/owners "all in" for data centers.  They support both political teams, Joe Hyde - Red Team and Jon Mark Hogg - Blue Team.

The Concho Observer is a publication of Hogg Media LLC, which is solely responsible for its content.

The picture is becoming clearer in terms of the players, but not clearer in terms of actual project details.  

The TechGods are coming....

City May Have Use for Former Dump Site: Indoor Sports!

San Angelo City Council will hear a presentation on developing a sports center on a former city owned "unauthorized" dump site.  

The Development Corporation purchased the land from the city in 2017.  

In 2018 the Development Corporation handed back the land to the City under recommendation of Assistant City Manager Michael Dane (now retired).  

The City approved the sale of the land to E&B Bryant Properties LLC for $1 million in 2022.  However, that did not go through according to the Tom Green County Appraisal District.

A number of assumptions seem to be a stretch, like the $1 million annual naming rights/philanthropy projection.  Also, the $125 per night hotel room will be nonexistent if our West Texas data center explosion imitates the shale boom when San Angelo had rooms for New York City prices.  

The City is changing as big money has "found us."  Those were the words of Chamber Executive Michael Looney.  He recently told the City's Development Corporation that four data centers are interested.  The public is aware of two, Skybox/Emergent and Beacon Data Centers.  The other two remain unnamed.

The sports facility may fulfill multiple aims by getting rid of that environment albatross and serving as a lure for Skybox/Emergent.  If we get the data center, we can provide you more sports options.  

How does that fit with Skybox will bring down your taxes?  We shall see.

Update 6-4-26:  The City of San Angelo explained why this item was not covered in their recent council meeting:

Due to a scheduling conflict with the presenter, Item 6a, a presentation and discussion of a feasibility study for an indoor sports complex on the June 2 City Council agenda, has been rescheduled for the July 7, 2026, City Council meeting.

AI Finks Seemingly Everywhere

WIRED ran a story on the FBI and other federal agencies concerned about citizen resistance to data centers locating in their community.  

According to documents obtained by WIRED through public records requests, more than 1,000 pages of previously unpublished reports from Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and fusion centers show agencies increasingly tracking what they describe as anti-technology threats.

One report from the New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau warned that AI adoption could spark major unrest within the next five years and result in "anti-tech violent extremist activity."

This follows BlackRock's Larry Fink expressing concern that citizens would use drones to attack data centers.  Something very strange is going on given how quickly this language has accelerated.   

Fink landed in Texas this week and appeared with Governor Greg Abbott.  Larry went on to suggest public pension funds, retirement and savings accounts finance hyperscale data centers. 

 

Expressing one's opinion, asking government to be open and accountable, to balance the resource needs of citizens with economic development and seeking to minimize the transfer of public dollars to extremely wealthy corporations/corporate executives sounds like a basic right.  

Have those rights also been pledged to TechGods and the Lords of Capital by our elected officials?

I never thought I needed to shield my savings and retirement accounts from voracious AI data centers.  Thank God, Larry Fink warned me.  

Update 5-28-26:  My wise friend noted:

The accumulated savings of the people have been harnessed and softly commandeered through the narrative of investment for the likes of Larry Fink and his private equity/venture capital brethren as they funnel those flows into their mandates and increased wealth.  I wonder how many people would pay attention if their private marks (asset valuations) were revealed and the Federal Reserve finally just let the market clear. 

Larry began his career with a wipeout, It would be poetic justice if he ended his career the same way.

Government of, by and for the TechGods. the Lords of Capital and their political functionaries.  Finks everywhere.

The new executive producer of 60 Minutes is a documentarian and tech journalist.  

Tom Green County Targeted, San Angelo Partnering

Three data centers have targeted Tom Green County for possible sites.  Beacon Data Centers is the only one to identify itself.  They hope to build a giant data center in Dove Creek.  Residents told them to go away.

The City of San Angelo has been far more accommodating, working a land deal/annexing the area (March 2005), changing the zoning to allow data centers (January 2026) and approving zoning regulations relative to data center development (May 2026).  Developer Skybox/Emergent promotes the project as "built for speed" and having "exceptional municipal support."  

Data Centers are needed for AI and are being brought to us by the same people that created addictive and harmful social media and other predatory apps.  

Our leaders want the public to trust the developer any potential AI occupant.  

No thank you.  Developers are backed by big money intent on making bigger money.  Promises mean nothing.  The project is intended to make bank for its private equity underwriter (PEU) sponsor.  If so, it will be flipped in a few years and the people who brought the project to our area will be gone.

It could middle along, in which case the developer has to hold onto to the project, tweaking it for regular cash siphoning.  

The project could fail miserably and its keys be handed back to creditors.  If creditors don't want it, it becomes the city's problem as an abandoned piece of property with lots of toxic heavy metal equipment and tainted cooling water.

Tom Green County residents need a government champion, whether it be local, regional or state, to level the imbalance of power and advantage.  Texas, like most states, is set up to encourage such development via layers of tax breaks, fast tracking permits and even direct subsidy.

San Angelo residents need brakes to stop the oncoming train so its engine defects can be examined and fail safe's installed that actually protect residents.  There needs to be significant monetary penalties for failed promises and actual community harm.

The developer would say "we are just the building."  That building will use the energy of 750,000 homes and house unreliable, even dangerous AI. 

I speak for many when I say our area does not need or want hyper-scale data centers with their voracious power and water needs, their inflation boosting impact on goods and housing and their profit obsessed PEU owners/funders.  

Someone owes us a square deal, not one where we pay and pay and pay, both in money and loss of quality of life.  

Update:  Lake Tahoe communities are facing the prospect of no electricity due to a supplier redirecting its power to data centers.

The data center boom is rapidly sucking Nevada’s power grid dry, with an estimated 22 percent of the state’s total electricity generation capacity going toward the behemoth computing centers in 2024.

Texas, are you listening to the rapidly sucking sound to our west? 

Update 5-26-26:  Business Insider ran a story on students booing graduation speakers over the mention of AI:

....the perception of AI among the public is low. A Pew Research Center study found that about half of Americans felt the increased prevalence of AI in their daily lives made them feel "more concerned than excited." Many Americans across the country, meanwhile, are resisting new data centers in their communities, which are essential to powering AI products like chatbots.

Oh, and the cost of compute will far exceed the cost of human employees according to NVIDIA's CEO..

Brutal Data Center Stats for Texas Water

Texas faces the prospect of 750 new data centers according to a presentation at the recent Milken Global Conference.  Currently 140 data centers are under construction and 610 have been announced.  It's not clear if San Angelo/Tom Green County's potential four data centers are in the count.  Likely not, so the number could grow much higher.

Beacon Data Centers is looking at Dove Creek in Tom Green County for a possible location.  Their website indicates one of their data centers under development would use 400 acre feet of water per year.  

They said they would not drill wells but use surface water from Spring Creek.  I don't see how that is possible given we live upstream and the creek goes dry solely from upstream irrigation.  They stop irrigating and the flow returns.  It's not nearly enough to sustain daily operations of a giant data center.

Take 750 new data centers at 400 acre feet per year once under operation and that's an additional 300,000 acre feet needed statewide.  That does not count the water needed for construction or for new workers' living needs during the construction period.

Consider this recent report from Politico:

The neighbors of a data center in Georgia are steaming after they discovered the facility had sucked up nearly 30 million gallons of water.... 

Outrage started bubbling up last year when residents of an affluent subdivision named Annelise Park in Fayetteville, Georgia, noticed their water pressure was unusually low.

The company said its water consumption was so high last year because of temporary construction-related activities, such as concrete work, dust control and site preparation

Water demands occur long before sites become operational.  That 30 million gallons equates to 92 acre feet.  Someone needs to model the water use of 750 additional Texas data centers during the construction period.   That's water for the work and for the workers who surely need showers at the end of the day.  

A recent story in the Houston Chronicle indicated Texas data centers would go from using less than 1% of the state's water to 9% by 2040.  At a minimum that's a tenfold increase.  The study was done by the University of Texas.

The State of Texas has thrown the door wide open for these facilities.  That is why there are so many coming.  The newfound reticence of elected officials may be real and it may be for show.  

San Angelo and Tom Green County have four data centers exploring sites.  The Skybox/Emergent in San Angelo seems pretty far along and is actively being marketed.  Beacon Data Centers expressed interest and met with the community, which clearly told them to look elsewhere.  The other two sites have not been named, by interested party or location in the county.   

The picture is brutal on water alone.  No responsible elected official could allow this to happen on such an obscene scale.  

Update 5-13-26:  A mega data center development named "The Stratos Project" in Utah was approved by Box Elder County commissioners.  

Box Elder County, Utah gets 17 inches of rain, on average, per year.

Average annual rainfall for San Angelo is 21 inches.   

Stratos has a long way to go to become fully operational:

Developers say they will begin raising capital within 60 days and aim to start initial phases within months. The data center would likely not be in operation for ten years.

How did a Shark have so much success that far inland, in an area with so little water?  It won because local and state leaders prioritized out of state corporate interests above the people who elected them.  They did so "because the Undersecretary of the Air Force asked them to."

San Angelo has Goodfellow Airforce Base, which trains military intelligence and firefighters across all of the military's branches.  As of now there is no state group coordinating project development, but that could change.

Update 5-18-26:  A future water source for the City of San Angelo is aquifer water from Fort Stockton Holdings.  Fort Stockton has its own data center boom,  How much water will be available when the city needs it due to Tom Green County's data center boom (should it be realized)?

Update 5-25-26:  TCD reported:

a draft of Texas' 2027 state water plan estimates the state will need roughly $174 billion in water infrastructure projects over the next 50 years to avoid severe regional shortages during drought. It mentions nothing, however, about data centers.

Sumter is Latest PEU Player

The big money boys have found San Angelo according to Chamber Vice President Michael Looney.  Private equity underwriters (PEU) are behind numerous projects in San Angelo, Tom Green County and the Concho Valley.

One even shared his history with private equity at the recent data center public meeting.  That was Emergent founder and CEO Chris Sumter.  

Sumter noted he was part of the team that founded Vantage Data Systems which became a Silver Lake affiliate in 2010.  That should have been Sumter's first windfall.

Next he did a data center in Santa Clara with Acore Capital.  Now he heads Emergent Data Centers which has primarily worked with Blue Owl for project financing.

It does not appear Emergent itself has a private equity sponsor, but these relationships are private and can remain opaque.

Many data center projects are financed through joint ventures between developers and institutional equity investors, including pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and infrastructure-focused private equity sponsors. The developer typically contributes expertise, entitlements, and project management capabilities while the equity partner provides the majority of the capital.

Sumter is the developer with the expertise and project management capabilities.  The City of San Angelo, Tom Green County and the State of Texas are contributors of entitlements (which can include incentives).  

Entitled sites offer a clear path to execution, reducing the uncertainty associated with early-stage development.

SA1 is promoted as "a municipal partnership built for speed" and having "exceptional municipal support."  Oddly, the City of San Angelo has no documents relative to that claim.

Representative Drew Darby made his position on data centers clear via a statement.  It closed with:

Texas taxpayers should not be subsidizing billion-dollar facilities. If a data center cannot pencil out without a government handout, that tells you something. I will support ending blanket tax abatements and redirecting those dollars toward the communities that actually bear the costs of this development. West Texas will never simply be a place to plant a server farm and hand the bill to ratepayers — not on my watch.

I hope that includes eliminating the current Texas sales tax break for the expensive equipment that fills these data centers.  Also, the U.S. Congress should finally eliminate private equity's preferred "carried interest taxation."  It has remained for decades despite widespread unpopularity.

The big money boys have found us and the only thing that will turn them away is charging them bigger money.  

Fire up the tax abatement and PEU preferred taxation grinders in the various Capital basements.  That vibration may be anathema to their hurdle rates.  Let the players play elsewhere.

Local Tax Abatements for Private Equity Backed Projects

The City of San Angelo officially renewed its tax abatement program at its last meeting.  Tom Green County has been active in that arena as well.  There are three recipients of such abatements, Apex Clean Energy, Peregrine Energy and Doral LLC.  All are owned by private equity underwriters (PEU).

Chamber Vice President Michael Looney informed the San Angelo Development Corporation Board that more private equity projects are interested in coming to the area.  He cited four data centers, the Skybox/Emergent effort in the city and three more in the county, with Beacon being the one identified to date.  

Skybox has been backed by Blue Owl Capital, which has had a difficult run of late as investors have fled its private credit offerings.  

Private equity affiliates pursue projects with the intent of increasing the future sale price of that company.  Their financial structure often is heavily debt funded which can cause a heavy interest burden in times of rising interest rates (as the rate tends to be variable) and difficult economic conditions (potentially with less revenue/higher costs).  

It is not unusual for a PEU affiliate to simply hand over the keys to the organization to lenders.  That is a consideration, as the timing for actual benefit to San Angelo citizens may coincide with the entity's stressed sale or closure. 

Promises of greater local taxes three to five years down the road may or may not materialize.  The State of Texas already ensured sales taxes on the billions ($) in expensive servers will not be paid.  Think about that the next time you have to replace your computer, phone or laptop.  

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.  The national trend has become local.  It's a sad day to see.  

SA1 Data Center Has Giant Hat, City Provides No Meat

The following public information request was submitted on April 27th.

“Please provide documents relative to the following information from Emergent Data Centers that references the City of San Angelo: Municipal Partnership Built for Speed 

"San Angelo has annexed the site and fast-tracked data center zoning by-right. The city has confirmed water and sewer capacity for full-scale development. This is a city-backed infrastructure project with committed resources."  

The document also states the City of San Angelo is providing "exceptional municipal support." Please provide documents delineating this exceptional municipal support. Thank you.” 

On April 29th city staff asked for clarification:'

This letter is to clarify what information you are seeking from the City of San Angelo. 

PLEASE CLARIFY THE DOCUMENTS YOU ARE REQUESTING.

On May 1st I replied with:

I request documents delineating the "committed resources" to this "city-backed infrastructure project" (Emergent/Skybox Data Center). Also, I request the specific levels of service the city is providing Emergent/Skybox to achieve the "exceptional municipal support" level, As the partnership is "built for speed" I request a projected timeline with key development steps and an anticipated start date. Thank you.

This morning I received:

The City of San Angelo has reviewed its files and has determined there are no responsive documents to your request.

No documents for a "city backed infrastructure project with committed resources."  How can that be?

Citizens Speak on Emergent/Skybox's SAI

 

The above video is cued to begin with citizen comment from the 4-22-26 public meeting on the Skybox/Emergent Data Center project in northeast San Angelo.  

Prior to public comment Mayor Thompson interviewed two gentlemen from Emergent Data Centers, Skybox's developer/sales agent.  The project is marketed as having "exceptional municipal support" and a "municipal partnership built for speed."

As someone who has tried to get information on economic development incentives since December 2025 I'd like to add "secrecy" to "speed."  I submitted that question for the public meeting but leadership chose not to address it in their infomercial.  

I had to leave as public comment was starting as I needed to go home and take care of animals.  I must say residents of San Angelo, Abilene Tom Green and surrounding counties spoke eloquently and passionately.  Bravo.  The video is worth watching.

The meeting deteriorated at the end when San Angelo Live's Joe Hyde chose to insult the crowd.

If that's your champion, I'm not sure you are on the right side.  Hyde ran for Tom Green County Judge against Lane Carter but lost.

Mayor Thompson did not have Hyde escorted out, instead Tom closed with:

"We are finished with public comment. Thank goodness." 

Box checked.  I'm afraid that means it's over.  

Dove Creek's Shawn Nanny (Tom Green County Commissioner) spoke simply and passionately against Beacon Data Centers locating in his community.  San Angelo's Joe Hyde trashed a public meeting with name calling against people doing the same as Nanny.  

It's a stain that taints and that may have been the aim.  End the show with a dookie. 

Note:  There are four data centers under consideration, one in San Angelo and three more in Tom Green County (source:  COSADC board meeting presentation by Michael Looney on 4-8-26).  

Tom Green County is asking for the ability to act on behalf of its citizens in shepherding local resources, water, power, etc..

The initial post had Joe Hyde as a mayoral candidate against Thompson.  That was incorrect and the post updated to show Hyde ran for County Judge but lost.  Had he won he might be shepherding the development of three data centers and not asking the state legislature for the ability to protect citizens from data center harm. 12:10 pm on 4-24-26

Update 5-4-26:  San Angelo City Council will entertain an agenda item on data center zoning in tomorrow's Council meeting.  I expect citizens will want to speak as that is their right.  Hopefully, Joe Hyde will keep his remarks on the positives of data centers and why he is such an advocate.  His trashing of his peers was a sorry display from someone who'd hoped to serve the public.

Emergent Data Center Show at McNease Convention Center

San Angelo Mayor Tom Thompson interviewed two executives from Emergent Data Center, CEO Chris Sumter and Chief Technology Officer Mike Coleman, about the proposed Skybox Data Center project in the Northeast portion of town.  This followed a presentation by Planning & Development Director Aaron Vannoy on ordinance changes based on development research from other communities with current and proposed data centers.

The Mayor's structured interview covered the following areas:

• Emergent Executives background
• Why San Angelo
• Water Use
• Noise Mitigation
• Construction
• Operation - jobs created
• Grid - electricity impact
• Community responsibility
• Tax revenue (no specifics given)

The panel discussion had several explicit sales pitches embedded in it as well as promises to solve any problems that arose.  There was no indication that any panel member thought the project itself was problematic for San Angelo and this part of West Texas.  

Not addressed by the panel or the city's planning director:  economic development incentives currently under consideration for the project.  

I submitted that question on April 9th using the online form:

Please provide information about any public subsidies, direct or indirect, that the city is providing or plans to consider to support the development of the Skybox/Emergent Data Center. I submitted a public information request to this effect in December 2025 but have received no response at the City of San Angelo appealed to the Texas Attorney General to keep such information confidential.

It's interesting that city leaders can share research on design parameters from other cities but not on economic development incentives.  Last night's meeting would have been the perfect opportunity for city leaders to share their thinking in this arena.  They expressly have not to date and likely won't until it goes before Council for an up or down vote.  The hint that tax breaks will be included is the five to six year time frame to accrue community financial benefit.

I did learn that Chris Sumter started Emergent after a meeting with a private equity firm, something like Emphoric Capital.  Also, the city may steer its reclaimed water to the project (away from Wall farmers).  Whoever Emergent/Skybox leases the data center to may or may not pay sales taxes on the equipment they place in the facility (currently a State of Texas tax break).  The Mayor said it is not the city's right to demand anything from the company in terms of good community relations.

The city posted documents relative to the meeting/project.  Emergent mentioned "exceptional municipal support" and a "municipal partnership built for speed."

That bodes poorly for those wishing a moratorium on data center construction, requests made at the April 21st City Council meeting (as well as over the last six months).  

On April 8th Chamber Vice President  Michael Looney informed the City of San Angelo Development Corporation board that four data centers are shopping locally, Emergent in city limits and three others outside the city in Tom Green County.  In that same meeting Looney cited the potential to "brand San Angelo as a potential location for other data centers."

I was unable to stay for the public comment portion of the meeting but hope to view the video.  At least I got to hear the commercial.