It was 11 PM on a Sunday this April. Jazmin Villegas was getting ready for bed in Red Oak, Texas, when a Facebook notification caught her eye: the Planning and Zoning Commission was holding a rezoning hearing the next day for the farmland near her home. The land was slated for a new Compass Datacenters campus, which was news to her. Neither she nor her husband had received any notice.
She showed up. After speaking out against the project and turning down an offer to “name your price” for her property, the Marine veteran and mother of five immediately created a Facebook group with a co-founder, Lacey Hamel: “Red Oak TX—Say NO MORE Data Centers.” Since April the group has surpassed 1,700 members.
Tell Congress: Protect Families From Dangerous Data Center Air Pollution
Jazmin had never tried to organize a fight against a data center. But after joining the Marines at age 17 and serving 16 years, including a deployment to Afghanistan, Jazmin sees this kind of community organizing as a continuation of her military service. “When I took my oath to uphold the Constitution, it doesn’t end just because I retired,” she says.
She’s also deeply concerned about her own family. Jazmin and some of her children have serious health issues, including asthma. She bought her 20.5-acre property outside Dallas in October 2021 so they could have a peaceful life surrounded by animals and be able to grow their own food. Jazmin worries about what a data center next door—from construction dust to fumes from diesel generators—could do to their lungs. “Are they going to end up having to get hospitalized more often?” she wonders.
The fight in Red Oak
Although the Planning and Zoning Commission voted 3–2 at the hearing to deny the rezoning in April, the City Council approved it the next month. That cleared the way for Compass Datacenters’ project—one of thousands of data centers proposed nationwide since EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin decided making the U.S. the AI capital of the world was a priority for his agency—but it is now tied up in the courts.
Compass already operates seven buildings at its first Red Oak data center campus, about five miles away, Jazmin says. Neighbors near there have dealt with low water pressure, water and power outages, and brownouts. Compass agreed to hold a town hall meeting with Red Oak residents about the new project but has postponed that meeting multiple times.
Red Oak is just one of many Texas communities grappling with the data center boom reshaping the state. Texas now has more data center capacity operating and under construction than Virginia, which has held the dubious lead in operating capacity since 2016. Texas is expected to exceed 40 gigawatts of capacity by 2028, equal to about 30% of total U.S. demand.
Meanwhile, Jazmin’s own monthly electric bill recently hit $900. This is not unrelated. She is paying for the expensive new energy infrastructure needed to supply electricity to data centers and higher wholesale energy costs.
What’s in the air?
Jazmin, Lacey, and their Facebook group want local and state leaders to commission health and environmental studies to ensure that proposed data centers will not cause long-term issues in people or animals. “How is that going to affect all of us?” she asks.
In addition to the dust and fumes Jazmin is concerned about, data centers are known to present significant climate and pollution problems because of the electricity they require. The facilities are often powered by fossil fuels, which pollute the air and increase greenhouse gases.
Many data centers rely on fleets of diesel backup generators, and some use gas turbines. Both emit nitrogen oxides, which form ground-level ozone and soot, pollutants linked to heart attacks, respiratory infections, asthma attacks, and premature death. Diesel exhaust is also a known carcinogen.
It only takes one person
Jazmin joined the Marine Corps because she fell in love with the Gettysburg Address, particularly Abraham Lincoln’s call to finish the work of those who came before us. She believes that because we don’t know what the future holds, it’s on all of us to protect our freedoms and rights. That includes speaking out about data centers, doing research using reputable sources, and connecting with the other groups already fighting these massive supercomputers.
“I want to show my kids that it doesn’t matter if you feel that you are no one. It takes one person to start a domino effect,” Jazmin says. Getting involved in this fight against a planned data center next door has shown her how many neighbors, especially those with health issues, are not being adequately represented by their elected leaders. She says, “If they don’t have the strength to stand up and fight, I’m going to fight for them. And if they don’t have a voice, I’m going to be their voice.” Spoken like a veteran.
Tell Congress: Protect Families From Dangerous Data Center Air Pollution