⭐ Morning Briefing — September 28, 2026

(Covering Saturday, September 26 – Monday, September 28, 2026)

Top Story: A Fort Worth district judge on Friday dissolved the temporary restraining order that had blocked Westlake from voting on a development agreement for the Circle T data center since Aug. 17. That clears Westlake to move again, though the Keller-backed lawsuit goes on, with a hearing on the plaintiffs' standing set for Oct. 23.

📰 Today's News

1. ⚖️ Westlake's Circle T Restraining Order Is Gone, but the Keller Lawsuit Isn't

Judge Kimberly Fitzpatrick dissolved the temporary restraining order at a Sept. 25 hearing, the Dallas Morning News reported Monday. She first issued it Aug. 17, hours before a Westlake Town Council meeting, forcing the council to table a vote tied to the project, and it had been extended several times since. The suit was brought by the Lakes at Marshall Ridge Homeowners Association in Keller and two residents against Westlake's mayor and council members, with the city of Keller joining as an intervenor.
The case continues. On Oct. 23 the judge will decide whether the plaintiffs have standing to keep suing. Mediation before Friday's hearing produced no settlement, though Keller, Westlake and Circle T are still "pursuing a settlement dialogue," according to a status report.
In a statement, Westlake said it expects the dispute to be "fully resolved" at the Oct. 23 hearing and that it will keep following Gov. Abbott's data-center directives in the meantime. Plaintiffs' attorney Jason Friedman disagreed, saying Westlake "didn't follow the rules" on notice and zoning.
PowerHouse Data Centers' Circle T plan calls for four buildings on about 88 acres along U.S. 377. The site has been zoned commercial/industrial since 1998, which Westlake says makes a data center allowed by right. Westlake puts the site more than 1,200 yards from its own residents; Keller residents say it would sit only hundreds of feet from their backyards.

Today's Signal: Friday's ruling removes the court order that has blocked Westlake's vote since mid-August. What happens next depends less on this lawsuit than on whether Westlake's council now moves, and whether Abbott's TCEQ freeze leaves that vote with anything to approve.

2. 🌾 Gas Pipes, Turbine Crews and a Rate Shield Pile Up for the Panhandle's AI Campuses

Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America (NGPL) has asked FERC to approve a 550,000 Dth/d expansion in the Texas Panhandle to deliver gas to a planned Google data center, Natural Gas Intelligence reported Monday. The request combines 321,200 Dth/d of new compression with 228,800 Dth/d of existing capacity. NGI said Texas's permit freeze clouds the project's timeline.
Fermi America picked NAES Corporation to operate and maintain the gas turbine fleet at Project Matador in Carson County, trade outlet ChemAnalyst reported Monday. That's Fermi's second operator hire in a week, after CBRE was chosen to run building one of the data center.
Xcel Energy filed a proposed large-load tariff with the PUC on Monday aimed at keeping data-center costs off existing Texas customers, Amarillo's KFDA reported. Large users would typically sign commitments of 15 years or more, post financial protections if a project is delayed, shrunk or abandoned, pay minimum monthly bills while their load ramps up, and owe termination charges if they leave early. Brad Baldridge, interim president of Xcel Energy Texas and New Mexico, said growth has to be "handled the right way." A New Mexico filing is planned next.

Today's Signal: Xcel's Panhandle service territory sits outside ERCOT, in the Southwest Power Pool, so Abbott's ERCOT interconnection audit doesn't cover it. That leaves Xcel's tariff and FERC's pipeline review as the main checks on data-center load there.

3. 🇰🇷 Korea Eyes a $22 Billion, 6.3-GW Gas Plant in Encinal to Power 5 GW of Data Centers

The first project in South Korea's strategic U.S. investment plan, recently reported to the National Assembly, is a 6.3-GW combined-cycle gas plant in Encinal, Texas, BusinessKorea reported, citing industry sources on Sept. 27. The project is valued at about 30 trillion won ($22.1 billion) and would supply nearby data centers totaling 5 GW. Korean battery and power-equipment makers are already positioning to supply storage and transformers for it.
The Korea Herald reported that Seoul is still awaiting U.S. approval for the project (headline seen; article not opened).

Today's Signal: For scale, the Encinal plan's 6.3 GW is about double the 2.67 GW Chevron has said Project Kilby will eventually reach. It arrives while Texas has paused new data-center permits.

4. 🗳️ Abbott Backs Local Control as Critics on His Right and Left Keep Pushing

In a CBS News Texas segment aired Sunday, Abbott said the state has "broadened the scope of what the hurdles are" for data centers and that "any data center that requires any permit in the state of Texas now comes to a halt." He also told Gainesville supporters he wants the Legislature to pass rules letting counties and cities decide whether a data center goes up. The RealClearPolitics average had him ahead of Democrat Gina Hinojosa 47.8% to 46% as of Friday. Hinojosa said she has accepted four debate invitations; Abbott hasn't accepted any.
Outgoing Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, a Republican, told Rolling Stone in an interview published Monday that "I think Abbott may lose." He called Abbott's steps "smoke and mirrors" and said the governor has taken $21 million from data center interests. Miller also claimed a comptroller audit found six of 20 data centers out of compliance with their tax-incentive obligations; this briefing hasn't independently verified that.
A new statewide coalition, We the People Texas, which includes the Texas NAACP and Save Rural Texas, planned to launch at the Capitol Monday morning, CBS Austin reported. The group said it would release public records on data-center water negotiations and call for a pause and review of water commitments. As of that report, the records hadn't yet been made public.

Today's Signal: Texas counties generally lack zoning authority, which is why so many rural fights end with commissioners saying their hands are tied. Abbott is now pledging to give them that power, but through a Legislature that doesn't meet until after the election.

5. 💵 Hut 8 Adds a $1.07 Billion Credit Line, the Day Before Its Poolin Sale Hearing

Hut 8 said Monday it closed a four-year, $1.07 billion senior secured revolving credit facility on Sept. 24, undrawn at closing, Blockspace reported via Yahoo Finance. Up to the full amount can be used for letters of credit covering interconnection deposits and amounts owed to utilities and equipment vendors, so Hut 8 doesn't have to post cash collateral for them.
The revolver sits alongside $7.5 billion in project-level campus bonds, including a $4.25 billion Beacon Point bond; Beacon Point is Hut 8's Texas campus that received a conditional Batch Zero base-load classification this month. Hut 8's $140 million winning bid for Poolin's two Texas sites goes before the bankruptcy court Tuesday, Sept. 29.

Today's Signal: A credit line that pays for interconnection deposits with letters of credit is a bet that those deposits will come due. Hut 8 is building that capacity while ERCOT's connection pause is still in effect.

No new TCEQ filings surfaced in the eight tracked DFW counties over the weekend, and ERCOT posted no new releases.

📍 Today's Watch List

Whether the Westlake Town Council now schedules a vote on the Circle T development agreement, and the Oct. 23 hearing on the plaintiffs' standing.
Hut 8's Poolin sale hearing in the New Jersey bankruptcy court, Tuesday, Sept. 29.
What We the People Texas's water-negotiation records actually show once they're released.
FERC's review of NGPL's Panhandle expansion, and the PUC docket for Xcel's large-load tariff.
Whether Washington approves the Encinal plant as the first project in South Korea's U.S. investment plan.
Voter registration closes Oct. 5. Wichita Falls holds a public panel on the Power Campus Texas project on Oct. 6, with Rep. James Frank, Mayor Tim Short and Skybox's Haynes Strader.
The PUC's still-unscheduled vote on El Paso Electric's McCloud plant, which the El Paso Times put at $551.8 million and 366 MW.
ERCOT's Oct. 12 deadline for data-center RFI responses and TCEQ's Oct. 19 compliance update to the governor.
ERCOT's December 10 audit report to the PUC. No material movement is expected before the December PUC meeting, so this stays at the bottom of the list until that date approaches.