Attorney General Ken Paxton has called data centers a “complicated issue” that should be decided “by local communities.”

But when two rural counties asked his office early this year if they could halt local data center construction, it was not quick to weigh in. Six months later, it still hasn’t.

The attorney general’s office had 180 days to issue a legal opinion or delay the matter, according to state law. The office wrote to Hood County Attorney Matt Mills on Monday notifying him it would “need more time to review the law, complete our analysis, and finalize the opinion.”