What information is accessible about a data center project can differ from place to place and depend on whether a project seeks out tax breaks, whether it needs local rezoning or special permits, and how it will get its power and water.
Taylor Goldenstein
Taylor Goldenstein is an enterprise and investigative reporter for The Texas Tribune. Taylor previously covered state politics for the Houston Chronicle and Hearst Newspapers from 2019 and 2026. She hails from the suburbs of Chicago but has been a Texan for nearly a decade, having first cut her teeth at the Austin American-Statesman in 2016 where she covered local politics. Taylor graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2014, she was selected to be a visiting fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Taylor's grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Latin America, providing a foundation in Spanish that she has strengthened through more than a decade of formal study and an undergraduate minor in the language. She is based in Austin.
Posted in
Data Centers in Texas
While data centers boom in Texas, their plans stay shrouded in secrecy
Data center developers can use nondisclosure agreements and shell companies to shield the details of their deals from the public. Even state officials also say they need more transparency from the industry.
Posted in
Politics
Trump calls Texas’ data center opposition a “mistake”
The president’s comments to Punchbowl News come just days after Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statewide pause of approval for data centers trying to connect to the power grid.
Posted inPolitics
Don Huffines sworn in as Texas comptroller ahead of November elections
Gov. Greg Abbott appointed the hard-right, former state senator to lead the office as it oversees Texas’ launch of a $1 billion school voucher program.
Posted in
Congress
Trump says he will pull Blanche’s attorney general nomination until Cornyn leaves office
The president suggested Cornyn was holding up Todd Blanche’s nomination because he endorsed Ken Paxton over the senior senator. Cornyn said it has nothing to do with their political history.
Posted in
2026 Texas Elections
Sex abuse victim family says they’re “tired of being used” for politics amid Talarico attacks
Talarico has been attacking Paxton on the campaign trail over his office’s handling of a case where a Waco man was charged with sexually abusing a young boy.
Posted in
Data Centers in Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott calls for ban on data center development in rural Texas neighborhoods
Abbott previously outlined a broad regulatory framework around data centers amid backlash from rural communities around their impact on residential neighborhoods.
Posted in
2026 Texas Elections
Talarico goes all-in with attack on Paxton plea deal in child sex abuse case
The Democratic Senate candidate continued his push for the release of files related to a plea deal his GOP rival’s office offered admitted child molester Adam Hoffman.
Posted in
Data Centers in Texas
Texas county rescinds its data center moratorium after $100 million lawsuit from developer
Hill County, which appears to be the first Texas county to pass a moratorium, replaced it Thursday with a checklist of requirements for developers.
Posted in
2026 Texas Elections
Inside the child sex abuse case that resulted in Ken Paxton’s office offering a plea deal of just one day in jail
Critics are pointing to two other serious felony cases that the attorney general’s prosecutors took to trial that ended in mistrials and, eventually, plea deals.
