Democrats Win Texas Oil Regulator Seat for First Time Since 1990
OilPrice.com · Michael Kern ·
Democrats won Texas' oil regulator for the first time since 1990 and took governorships in Texas, Georgia and Ohio on data center moratorium pledges.
Texas voters on Tuesday elected a Democrat to the Railroad Commission, the regulator of the state’s oil and gas industry, for the first time since 1990. They also elected a Democratic governor who promised to halt new data center construction. Democrats running against data centers took the governorships of Georgia and Ohio and won control of Georgia’s utility regulator. Voters cast those ballots with gasoline at its highest Election Day price on record.
State Rep. Jon Rosenthal, a former oilfield engineer who calls himself a “drill baby, drill Democrat,” defeated Republican Bo French for a seat on the three-member commission, which oversees oil and gas production, pipeline safety and natural gas rates. Republicans, who have held every seat since 1994, keep a 2-1 majority. Rosenthal ran on lower energy costs, plugging abandoned wells, closer oversight of natural gas infrastructure and managing data center power demand. He has proposed a first-of-its-kind fee on oil and gas wastewater injected underground.
Gina Hinojosa defeated Gov. Greg Abbott on promises to impose a moratorium on new data centers, tighten rules on their water and power use and end their tax breaks. Texas holds more than 25% of the data center capacity planned in the United States by 2030. As of August, 474 GW of projects were seeking connection to the ERCOT grid, more than five times its all-time peak demand. Elon Musk, the top donor of the midterms with a reported $446 million spent on Republicans, posted on X on Wednesday that data centers in space were “looking pretty appealing right now.”
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