⭐ Morning Briefing — Texas & DFW AI Data Centers, Grid, Land Use
(Latest updates through August 20, 2026)
Top Story: Texas lawmakers signaled they're ready to repeal the state's data-center sales-tax break — now costing an estimated $1.3 billion a year in forgone revenue — after a nine-hour Capitol hearing that also produced the first firm timeline for ERCOT's data-center audit: December.
📰 Today's News
1. 🏛️ Lawmakers Signal They're Done With the Data-Center Tax Break
- Wednesday's nine-hour House Committee on State Affairs hearing produced a concrete legislative shift, not just testimony: Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, told the committee the state's sales-tax exemption for data centers — which he originally authored — is "realistically... going to go away," with the Texas Comptroller's Office now estimating $1.3 billion in forgone sales tax in 2026, up from $5.4 million in the exemption's first year, 2014, according to the Texas Tribune's report (republished by the Gilmer Mirror and others).
- ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas gave the first specific completion estimate for Gov. Abbott's data-center audit — around December — while acknowledging some of the roughly 250 projects eligible for the first Batch Zero approval round may drop out because of the delay; transmission providers Oncor and AEP separately warned that revisiting the 180-day approval window for the proposed 765-kV lines could cost them their place in a national equipment-procurement queue.
- Separately, per the Austin American-Statesman's coverage of the same hearing, lawmakers pressed data-center developers directly on water and power use, while several county officials — including Leon County Commissioner Kyle Workman — asked for more authority to manage data-center buildout in unincorporated areas, a request State Affairs Chair Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, said risks eroding private property rights.
Today's Signal: A hearing that started as testimony-gathering ended with a sitting Republican author of the tax break calling for its own repeal and ERCOT naming an actual month for its audit to wrap — the clearest sign yet that Wednesday's session produced outcomes, not just record-keeping.
2. 🏗️ Collin County Land Filing Surfaces Near Princeton
- A data-center developer has filed with the Collin County Clerk to access roughly 50 acres just east of the Princeton city limits, owned by Dallas-based Aycock Enterprises Inc. and appraised this year at just over $1 million, according to the Princeton Herald — though the city says it has not received formal development plans.
- The Texas Comptroller's list of 147 data centers qualified for the state sales-tax exemption separately includes an entry for "Princeton ProjectCo LLC," registered June 30, 2026, but the filing lists no location, so it's not yet confirmed whether that registration is tied to the same 50-acre site.
Today's Signal: Princeton already tightened its own data-center zoning rules earlier this summer — this filing is the first sign a project may actually be testing those new rules against real acreage, rather than the rules just sitting on the books.
3. ⚖️ Granbury Recall Fight Over Hood County Data Centers Reaches Appeals Court
- The disputed recall of Granbury Mayor Jim Jarratt and four city council members — filed by Grassroots Granbury after the city approved two data centers under the "Project Patriot" banner — has escalated to a Fort Worth appeals court, per Hood County News and KERA News, after the city rejected the underlying petitions for allegedly failing to comply with procedural requirements.
- The recall fight is a direct outgrowth of this summer's Hood County data-center dispute, in which a judge already dismissed a separate lawsuit seeking to force the county to approve the same two projects.
Today's Signal: Hood County's data-center fight keeps generating its own second-order political consequences — first a lawsuit over the approvals themselves, now a recall fight over who approved them — a pattern worth watching as more DFW-area counties see contested votes.
Quiet today on TCEQ air-permit filings in the eight tracked DFW counties, and no new ERCOT interconnection-queue or PUC docket filings beyond the audit-timeline update already covered above.
📍 Today's Watch List
Actionable Signals for Thursday, August 20
- Whether Rep. Charlie Geren or another lawmaker actually files a bill to repeal the data-center sales-tax exemption ahead of the 2027 session
- ERCOT's progress toward its newly stated December audit-completion target, and whether any of the ~250 first-batch projects formally withdraw
- Any legislative movement on revisiting the 180-day approval window for the three proposed 765-kV transmission lines
- The Fort Worth appeals court's response to the Granbury recall petition, and whether it orders new recall elections against Mayor Jim Jarratt and the four council members
- Whether Princeton receives formal development plans tied to the ~50-acre Collin County filing, and whether "Princeton ProjectCo LLC" is confirmed as the same project
- The Aug. 26 Tarrant County injunction hearing that will decide whether Westlake's Circle T vote stays blocked
- Any new filings or public notices in the eight tracked DFW counties (Collin, Ellis, Johnson, Denton, Wise, Tarrant, Parker, Hood)