RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Like many Americans, Willie Nelson is concerned about the rapid construction of massive AI Data centers across the U.S. The country icon posted an open letter on X on Tuesday (July 28) addressed to “whom it may concern and to everyone else as well,” in which he lamented that potential plans to build one of the energy- and water-hogging plants could change the nature of Abbott, Texas, where he owns a home and farm.
“I grew up in Abbott, and I still have a home there with farmed land where I can still see stars at night,” Nelson, 93, on X. “And now our community, like many others, needs to fight against data centers invading our land. The last thing we need is a loud, water thieving, light polluting, data center anywhere near our town (or any others for that matter).”
Nelson — who has spent more than four decades raising money and awareness about the plight of small American farms via his co-founded annual concert Farm Aid — wrote that the strength of rural America has never come from “big industrial footprints,” but rather from “generations of people, open spaces, local businesses, and a connection to the land. All of America deserves thoughtful stewardship that doesn’t steal farmland (where our essential shared-food is grown) and small family farmers’ livelihoods, and not data centers that only destroy the environment around them.”
Like many local, state and federal authorities, Texas politicians are in a heated battle about the building of massive data centers to support the AI boom. After previously calling the Lone Star State the global “epicenter of AI development,” Republican Gov. Greg Abbott recently pushed for a ban on AI centers in rural neighborhoods and stricter regulations on utility and water usage to protect the state’s power grid and save his constituents from rapidly rising electricity rates.
At press time it was not clear if Nelson’s letter was targeting a specific data center near Abbott, which is about an hour south of Dallas. But a May Gallup Poll reported that seven in 10 Americans oppose local construction of AI data centers, with 48 percent strongly opposed and just seven percent strongly in favor.
Nelson ended his letter with a stark warning: ““Whoever controls food and water, controls the masses. Let’s not allow our own demise or give up control over necessary resources in the U.S. and especially in Abbott.”
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