Morning Briefing Archive

Texas Rangers are reviewing allegations that Guadalupe County Judge Kyle Kutscher broke state law in dealings with the Palomino Alpha data center project.

TCEQ disabled its STEERS online permit system Wednesday after watchdogs found data center stormwater permits approved during Abbott's pause.

TCEQ's Oct. 19 letter to Gov. Abbott says data center permits are 'paused,' but stormwater coverage for a Bastrop campus still shows active.

FracTracker and Public Citizen counted 35 TCEQ data center permitting actions after Abbott's Sept. 21 pause. Abbott's office says none were approvals.

Texas Tribune: Gov. Greg Abbott has raised about $9 million from data center-related donors since July 2025, $2.8 million of it after his grid pause.

Texas AG Ken Paxton sent letters to 156 data center developments in 30-plus counties demanding current water-use data, under a law capped at a $500 fine.

Denton's council voted 4-0 to require a specific-use permit for every data center and confine them to industrial zones, ahead of an Oct. 27 moratorium hearing.

Hood County rejected Sailfish Investors' Comanche Circle settlement 3-1 and denied its permit appeal. The developer says the fight is headed to court.

A developer says he'll sue Hood County if it rejects the Comanche Circle data center near Dinosaur Valley State Park. Opponents vow to sue if it's approved.

Hudspeth County officials say they learned of a $15 billion, 24,000-acre ServerDomes data center campus near Desert Haven from rumors, after ground was broken.

Granbury's mayor, mayor pro tem and a councilman are the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that halted a recall election over a 2,200-acre data center annexation.

A Houston lawyer's lawsuit stopped Granbury from scheduling a May 2027 recall of its mayor and four council members over a 2,200-acre data center annexation.

Killeen's council voted 6-1 Monday to drop its plan requiring a conditional-use permit for every data center, a rule its interim manager called a de facto ban.

TCEQ emails show a reviewer asked Amp Z's developer to get turbine emissions under 249.99 tons, keeping the Lufkin plant out of federal review.

The U.S. and South Korea picked a $22.3B Encinal gas plant to power a 5-GW data center campus; Chevron's Project Kilby may slip to 2027 under the permit freeze.

Archer County opposed TCEQ wastewater permits for a planned Google data center near Wichita Falls, as the U.S. Senate blocked a data center ratepayer bill.

Save Our Springs sued Austin over redacted Tesla data center water records, as Granbury's mayor and council refused to resign over Project Patriot.

Denton's planning commission voted 5-0 to end by-right data centers, as El Paso pushed for a full hold-harmless deal on Meta's gas plant.

A Fort Worth judge dissolved the order blocking Westlake's Circle T data center vote, as Panhandle gas and power filings for AI campuses piled up.

Texas AG Ken Paxton opened a probe into hundreds of data centers in 18 counties, including Dallas and Tarrant, that skipped the state water-use survey.

Five Dallas council members asked for a hearing on a hyperscale data center moratorium, days after Lubbock's council voted to start a 90-day pause.

CNBC: data centers are reshaping Texas's tightening governor's and Senate races, as Denton and Fort Worth push ahead on their own moratoriums.

Gov. Abbott halted every Texas data center permit Monday pending grid and water audits, hours before green groups sued Vantage over San Antonio gas-plant air permits.

CBS's 60 Minutes spotlighted Red Oak and Hood County's data-center fights this weekend; Hood County confirms AWS walked away over a tax-rebate dispute.

Paxton opens an investigation into a $10M Taylor data center land deal, as Dallas's GDT sells for $1.05B and H&MV pledges 1,000 new Dallas jobs.

Cipher's stock jumped on an ERCOT Batch Zero nod and a $10M water pledge with Anthropic, as $1.2B in new DFW data center projects surface.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick forced ERCOT to scrap a $6.4M CEO pay contract after backlash, as new reporting shows Texas can't actually count data-center jobs.

Abbott orders Texas's water agency to criminally penalize data centers that dodge water reporting, tying it to the ERCOT interconnection audit.

ERCOT demands sworn proof from data centers or they lose their line spot, as Friday's PUC vote clears one 765kV line but remands two others to judges.

The Texas PUC votes today on fees and disclosure rules for data centers seeking grid power, as Amazon defends its $10 billion Boling campus to wary neighbors.

Hood County conservatives are breaking from the GOP over Texas's data-center boom, KERA reports, as the fight becomes a live issue in the governor's race.

White Rose Partners withdrew its $580M Prosper data center as Galaxy Digital won conditional ERCOT status for 4.2 GW and Lubbock voted to hold off on data centers.

IREN's Sweetwater hub won conditional ERCOT base-load status as a Westlake data-center hearing was delayed, Hood County took up a Dinosaur Valley project, and Granbury's council was forced toward a recall vote.

ERCOT says it aims to finish Texas's data-center grid audit by Dec. 10, attaching the freeze's first price tag: up to $8 billion in delayed projects.

Red Oak residents sued their city over a data-center rezoning as Black Mountain's 138M-gallon Parker County water bid triggers a year-long study.

Fort Worth's 11-member Data Center Commission began work Sept. 4 as Vistra and NRG shares fell on Texas's statewide grid-connection freeze.

Reuters: Texas Republicans, led by Gov. Abbott, are turning against data centers as his grid-connection pause is set to expire the day after the election.

Fewer than half of Texas's known data centers answered state water-use inquiries, a Senate hearing revealed Tuesday — some could face criminal charges.

Anthropic's $35B Lambda deal spotlights Hut 8's Nueces County data center, as Reuters finds Texas grid connection requests have hit 474 GW.

A Tarrant County judge still hasn't ruled on blocking Westlake's $1.1B Circle T data center, as Abbott's pause becomes a national midterm flashpoint.

Granbury reversed course and will send recall petitions targeting its mayor and council over the Project Patriot data center to the city council.

Austin's City Council voted Thursday to start drafting a citywide ban on hyperscale AI data centers — the most aggressive move yet by a major Texas city.

BloombergNEF estimates Texas's data-center grid audit could cost projects up to $15 billion and delay 49.8 GW of load, as ERCOT pushes its Batch Zero review to year's end.

New tracking data shows Texas's 12 largest gas power projects are built solely to run AI data centers, with a handful set to emit 100M+ tons of CO2 a year.

Texas regulators warn a rushed pause on data centers and power lines risks blackouts, as the fight over Abbott's freeze roils the Senate and governor's races.