What the City gave
- 80% property-tax abatement — 10 years per phase, up to 5 phases (Ch. 312)
- A second 80% property-tax grant — 15 years per phase, no dollar cap (Ch. 380)
- $5,000,000 cash in TED road funds
- up to $9,000,000 reimbursing the company's roads
- All impact, permit, review & park fees waived
- ~1,039 acres of City land — sold to the company
- A 35-year lock-in that auto-extends
What the City got
- 50 permanent jobs — total, not per phase
- Remote workers count; wage floor ~$16.43/hour
- Jobs not required for ~a decade
- A building the company is not even required to construct
And the oversight the City surrendered
- No cap on water. No cap on power. The water terms were placed in a separate EPWater agreement that is not public.
- No cost-causation — nothing requires the company to pay for the utility upgrades it forces, so residents' bills absorb them.
- No noise, air, or environmental limits, and no community-benefit requirement.
- A promise not to tax or regulate data centers for 35 years.
- A duty to fight residents' public-records requests for the company, at the Texas Attorney General.
- Inspection once a year, escorted, under a non-disclosure agreement.
- Almost no clawback if the company underdelivers — and it can sell, transfer, or quit at will.
And the deal can grow itself
Any land the company buys within a half-mile is automatically swept into the same tax deal — with no new Council vote.
And the next one is already here
Wiwynn in Socorro (~150 MW) and Project Jupiter across the line in Doña Ana County (a self-supplied gas plant up to 2,880 MW) draw on the same water basin and the same air — and no public study adds the three together. The same playbook is about to repeat.
El Paso can't easily undo this deal. It can refuse to repeat it.
The fix is a city law that sets clear, equal terms before the next signature: water and power caps, the company pays its own upgrades, public reporting, and a teardown bond. The model ordinance is written and ready.
Submit a public comment Read the model ordinance See the agreements