Harlingen mayor withdraws 2025 letter backing proposed data center after it resurfaces online

Harlingen Mayor Norma Sepulveda has withdrawn a September 2025 letter supporting a proposed $14 billion data center campus in Cameron County after the document resurfaced on social media, acknowledging that the letter went further than she intended and saying she signed it without asking enough questions.

The letter, addressed to AEP Texas President and COO Judith Talavera, urged the utility to honor a letter of agreement with developer RGV Property Group LLC and provide the electrical capacity needed to keep the proposed project on schedule. 

It described the development as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” that could bring billions in private investment, thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent positions to Cameron County.

The letter also argued that the project would help demonstrate the need for long-sought 765-kilovolt transmission infrastructure into the Rio Grande Valley.

In a statement released Friday, Sepulveda said residents deserved to hear directly from her after the letter began circulating online.

“The letter I signed last September is going around on social media,” she wrote. “You should hear about it directly from me.”

Mayor says position on data centers has not changed

Sepulveda emphasized that Harlingen has never formally considered a data center project and that the city’s current moratorium remains in place.

“No data center has ever come before the Commission,” she wrote. “That was true when I said it and it is true today. We have a moratorium in place. We are not entertaining a data center inside our city limits.”

She said the request originated from officials seeking regional support for electrical infrastructure tied to a proposed campus in unincorporated Cameron County, outside Harlingen’s city limits.

According to Sepulveda, letters requesting support were sent to multiple elected officials throughout the region.

She said she signed the document in her individual capacity as mayor rather than on behalf of the Harlingen City Commission.

“It was not a Commission action and it did not speak for the City,” she said.

Says she believed she was supporting transmission infrastructure

Sepulveda said her primary motivation was improving the Valley’s electrical grid.

“I signed it because of power,” she wrote. “The Valley has been at the end of the line on electric infrastructure my whole life. We need 765kV transmission down here whether or not any single project is ever built.”

She added that she had been told the proposed campus would provide its own electric generation instead of reducing existing grid capacity and would use treated effluent water rather than drinking water supplies.

However, after rereading the letter, Sepulveda acknowledged it conveyed broader support for the project itself.

“Reading it now, that letter goes further than the transmission request I understood myself to be making,” she wrote. “If you read it and thought I was advocating for the project, that is a fair reading of what is on the page. My signature is on it and I am not going to explain that away. However, I am withdrawing it today.”

Previous reporting documented growing concerns

The statement comes as scrutiny surrounding large-scale data center proposals has intensified across the Valley.

The Journal previously reported on the proposed Cameron County campus and the growing debate surrounding the infrastructure required to support hyperscale data centers, including concerns about electricity demand, water consumption, backup power generation and long-term community impacts.

The publication also reported that Harlingen adopted a temporary moratorium on new data center development within city limits while city leaders evaluated potential regulations and gathered more information about the industry’s impacts.

In Friday’s statement, Sepulveda reiterated many of those same concerns.

“I have said publicly, more than once, that I have serious concerns about these projects,” she wrote. “Water. Grid load. Air quality and emissions from backup generation. Noise. What it does to the land and to the neighborhoods around it. Whether the job numbers hold up ten years out.”

She said those concerns were among the reasons the city enacted its moratorium.

Focus shifts to protecting residents

Because the proposed campus site is located in unincorporated Cameron County, Sepulveda noted that counties in Texas generally lack zoning authority, limiting local land-use controls.

She said her attention is now focused on determining what authority Harlingen has to protect residents if large industrial projects are built adjacent to the city.

“The question I am working on is what the city can actually do to protect our water, our air, our grid, and our neighborhoods when something gets built next to us that we never approved,” she wrote.

Sepulveda concluded by accepting responsibility for signing the letter.

“I signed that letter without asking enough questions first,” she wrote. “You asked them. You were right to.”

She also invited residents to discuss the issue at an upcoming Coffee with the Mayor event, saying she would answer questions about the letter and other community concerns.