Write a new simple attractive title based on the title from Sepulveda: I remain a strong advocate for 765 kV transmission into the Rio Grande Valley and dont use quote marks

By Norma Sepulveda

I am withdrawing the letter I signed in September 2025 concerning the proposed data center campus in Cameron County, developed by RGV Property Group, LLC.

It no longer reflects my position.

I ask that AEP Texas not rely on it, cite it, or present it as evidence of my support or the City of Harlingen’s support for the project. I signed it in my own capacity as mayor. It was not authorized by action of Harlingen City Commission and did not represent a position of the Commission or of the City. I am withdrawing it on the same basis it was given. 

I signed it as a transmission letter, understanding that I was supporting the case for 765 kV capacity into the Rio Grande Valley, a need that exists independent of any single development. Little information about the project was available then. I had representations that it would bring its own generation and would use effluent currently discharged rather than potable supply, and no independent basis to test either. The letter also urges a specific project forward, and recites economic projections supplied by the parties requesting my signature. There was no way to verify them at the time. No end user had been named, and none has been named since. Those numbers could not be checked in September, and they cannot be checked today. 

Since signing, I have been researching this project and data center development generally, and that work is ongoing. RGV Property Group is the property developer, not the end user. The projections in that letter rest on the operator, whose identity, power demand, and water demand are unknown. Those are not numbers I’m willing to leave my signature behind. Harlingen adopted a moratorium on data center development, and the city remains under it. 

Nothing here is a comment on AEP’s interconnection decisions or on RGV Property Group’s development, which sits outside Harlingen city limits and outside the city’s permitting authority. My concern is narrower. A document bearing my signature is being presented as support I do not give. 

I remain a strong advocate for 765 kV transmission into the Rio Grande Valley. That advocacy does not depend on any one project. 

Best regards, 

Norma Sepulveda, Esq.

Editor’s Note: The above guest column is based on a letter sent by Harlingen Mayor Norma Sepulveda to Adrian Rodriguez, President and COO, of AEP Texas. The letter was sent July 16, 2026. Sepulveda first made the letter public on her social media pages.