GUEST VIEW: West Texas built one boom. It can build another
By Ector County Judge Dustin Fawcett
Odessa knows how to build an industry from scratch.
When the first oil wells came in across the Permian Basin, nobody had a blueprint. The infrastructure didn't exist, the workforce had to be trained, and critics said the land was too remote, the conditions too harsh, the risks too high. West Texans figured it out anyway, and in doing so, they powered a nation.
That same instinct is what I bring to the conversation about data centers. Texas needs to lean into this opportunity, not shy away from it.
Data centers are not an abstraction. They are the infrastructure behind everything we take for granted: the apps on our phones, the payment systems at every gas station and grocery store, the electronic health records at rural hospitals across West Texas. When a small-town ER physician pulls up a patient's medical history, a data center made it possible. When a soldier in the field accesses real-time intelligence, data infrastructure made it possible. These facilities are as essential to modern life as the power grid, and America's ability to lead in artificial intelligence depends on building enough of them, fast enough, on American soil.
Texas is already at the center of that buildout, competing with Virginia, Arizona, and the rest of the world for this investment. The question for Ector County and West Texas broadly is whether we want a seat at that table.
I do, and here's why we're better positioned than anywhere else in the country.
The Permian Basin produces something that data centers need and most of the country lacks: energy and water, in abundance, side by side.
Start with energy. The fracking revolution made the Permian the most prolific oil basin in the world, but associated natural gas overwhelmed pipeline capacity faster than anyone could keep up. Prices at Waha Hub went negative for more than 40% of trading days in 2024. Operators were paying to move gas or flaring it, disposing of abundance instead of profiting from it. Data centers change that calculus. A gigawatt-scale facility consumes roughly 170 million cubic feet of gas per day, and behind-the-meter generation turns a stranded resource into the most reliable, dispatchable power source in the world.
The water side works the same way. Not municipal water but produced water. Billions of gallons pumped out of the earth alongside oil and gas, currently shot back underground for lack of better use. Treatment technology is changing that. Ceramic membrane filtration, electrocoagulation, ion exchange. These are working solutions that bring produced water to specification for industrial cooling without touching the municipal supply. Done right, cleaning those more than 20 million barrels generated daily could add to the municipal water supplies rather than drain them.
The oil and gas industry has already proven this model. When operators faced pressure on freshwater use in the Permian, they didn't retreat. They innovated. ExxonMobil went from recycling 64 percent of produced water in its hydraulic fracturing operations in 2022 to 87 percent by 2024. Data centers can follow the same path, and West Texas has the infrastructure, the expertise, and the water supply to make it happen here.
The broader tech industry is already moving in that direction. Google's new data center in Wilbarger County will use advanced air-cooling technology that eliminates operational water use almost entirely. The company has committed to replenishing more water than it consumes and is working with conservation groups to improve watershed health across the state. That is what responsible development looks like, and it is proof that the water concern and the growth opportunity are not mutually exclusive.
Ector County's position is straightforward. We want data center development, and we won't accept it at the expense of our residents' water supply. Those two things are compatible if deals are structured correctly. That means brackish and produced water, not municipal supply. It means agreements that hold operators to that standard. It means county leadership that reads the fine print. Earlier this year, Ector County committed $17 million through the Texas Water Development Board to upgrade water infrastructure in West Odessa. We're planning ahead, not reacting.
None of this works without people. That's where Ector County is making its biggest bet. Ector County ISD is building a new $86 million Career and Technical Education Center, backed by voters, a 37-acre donation from Grow Odessa, and $10 million from the Permian Strategic Partnership. The skills that built our oil and gas workforce - electrical, instrumentation, mechanical, HVAC, control systems - translate directly into data centers. The pipeline is already here.
At a time when the state and our local governments are looking to solve the property tax question, data centers are almost too obvious of a solution. Ector County, like many counties in West Texas, has significant mineral values. In many counties, mineral values make up a majority of their property tax base. In Ector County, our mineral property estimated values are about $2 billion. Those values fluctuate and have a significant impact on local government revenues each year. That makes budgeting challenging, not just for local governments, but for many of my neighbors as well. Many of the data center investments we are seeing are in the hundreds of millions, if not tens of billions of dollars. Over time, that kind of investment could help lower homeowners property tax burdens while broadening and stabilizing the local tax base.
Lowering property taxes, protecting water usage, expanding power generation, diversifying the economy, adding jobs, and improving infrastructure. These are all of the benefits that we are looking at through embracing this new frontier.
Oil and gas built this community and will continue to anchor it. A county that also hosts data center infrastructure carries a broader tax base, more stable employment, and a stronger foundation for the next generation. The Permian Basin powered America's energy needs. There's no reason West Texas can't help power its digital infrastructure too.
Dustin Fawcett is the Ector County Judge.
The post GUEST VIEW: West Texas built one boom. It can build another appeared first on Odessa American.
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.
This story was originally published May 13, 2026 at 7:30 PM.