The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts recommended approval of a massive tax break for a dedicated power plant near Pecos, Texas that would serve one giant data center. None of the power generated would go to the public.
The $227 million tax abatement over ten years would subsidize a project needing attractive returns for Chevron and Engine No. 1 (an investment company with a hedge fund background).
Ownership stakes for the project have not been disclosed. The state provided documents which were not searchable (at least on my computer).
The project will provide 25 permanent jobs after completion. That's $9 million in subsidy per permanent job.
The State of Texas and Governor Rick Perry gave The Carlyle Group's Vought Aircraft Aviation $1 million per job cut over the initial term of their economic development subsidy. The Carlyle affiliate promised 3,000 new jobs for $35 million. They cut 35 positions while making interest profits on the $35 million.
I keep saying things could not be worse, but they keep getting darker and more sinister. The West Texas AI boom is brought to us by the Lords of Capital (private equity underwriters - PEU) and their TechGod brethren.
Their investment hurdle rates stand on the back of Texas residents who lose on all fronts, power prices, water availability, rapidly increasing costs (rent, hotels) and pollution/environmental degradation.
Elected officials should be required to office or spend weekends in manufactured homes that border these giant data centers/city sized electricity generating plants as long as the tax abatement lasts.
Red Politicians in Texas love PEUs and their new TechGod brethren. Increasingly, more are one and for that the common person suffers.