⭐ Morning Briefing — September 30, 2026

(Wednesday, September 30, 2026)

Top Story: Save Our Springs Alliance sued the City of Austin, alleging it over-redacted records about water service for a Tesla data center. The attorney general's office had told the city to release them, but the group got back a 15-page document with nearly everything blacked out.

📰 Today's News

1. 🔒 An Austin Lawsuit Tests How Far "Trade Secret" Can Hide a Data Center's Water Use

Save Our Springs Alliance filed suit last week in Travis County's 98th District Court, the Austin American-Statesman reported Tuesday. The group says the city ignored an attorney general ruling and over-redacted records on water service extensions for a Tesla data center project.
Tesla objected to the request in an April letter to the AG's office, arguing the records held trade secrets. The AG found Tesla hadn't justified withholding some of them and directed the city to release those. Save Our Springs says it received a 15-page Tesla-letterhead document covering talks with Austin Water since January 2025, almost entirely redacted.
Tesla is Austin Water's third-largest customer and has touted a 130-MW data center at Gigafactory Texas, which would count as hyperscale under the state's definition. The city released records on the other project covered by the request, a roughly 12,800-square-foot Stantec data center in Northwest Austin, without redactions.
A city spokesperson said Austin hadn't been served yet. Tesla isn't a party and didn't comment. The suit lands while the City Council works on a zoning change to ban large and hyperscale data centers, with a vote possible by year's end.

Today's Signal: Texas already struggles to get data centers to answer its water survey. This case asks a narrower question: once the attorney general orders records released, can a company's trade-secret claim still keep a city from releasing its water numbers?

2. 🗳️ Granbury's Mayor and Four Council Members Refuse to Resign Over Project Patriot

Dozens of residents walked out of a Granbury City Council meeting Monday night as the mayor and council members answered recall petitions tied to Project Patriot, FOX 4 reported. The data center is planned on about 2,200 acres near Meadow Wood Road that the city annexed earlier this year.
The petitions against Mayor Jim Jarratt and four council members carry more than 1,300 signatures, which FOX 4 put at about 15% of the city's population. Jarratt said "I will not resign" and argued the petitions don't lay out any specific wrongdoing. Residents left when Councilman Skip Overdier began speaking against the recall.
The city said it has received concept plans for Project Patriot. The project's website describes a self-sufficient campus with on-site power generation and privately funded infrastructure. Petitioners want the recall on the November ballot, and FOX 4 reported that a court fight over the project is also coming.

Today's Signal: Residents objected to the annexation, and the city says it will review Project Patriot's development plans through its normal process. So far the recall is the only direct check residents have used, and it would go to voters in November.

3. ☀️ Zone Frontier Locks Up 4,077 Panhandle Acres Around an Xcel Substation

Zone Frontier (NYSE American: ZONE) said Tuesday that a subsidiary signed a 30-year ground lease, with two 10-year extensions, on about 4,077 acres in Potter County for a West Texas campus it's developing with HST Technologies. Up to 800 acres could hold data centers with potential capacity above 500 MW, and at least 1,800 acres are set aside for solar and battery storage.
The land surrounds Southwestern Public Service's Potter County 345-kV substation in the Southwest Power Pool. The lease comes with a long-term water supply agreement drawing on the property's water rights, plus an option to buy the data center site. The company notes two major natural gas pipelines nearby.
Rent on each section starts only when construction begins there, and Zone says it plans to start building after it signs a tenant.

Today's Signal: This site is in SPP territory, which ERCOT's paused interconnection queue doesn't cover. Its path to the grid would instead run through Xcel's subsidiary SPS, under the large-load tariff Xcel has proposed at the PUC. The lease also leaves the land nearly free until a tenant signs.

4. 🏛️ Abbott and Patrick Take the Data Center Pitch on the Road

In Hemphill on Tuesday, Abbott said new data centers "must provide their own power" rather than draw from the grid, KTRE reported via KLTV. He said they should sign firm purchase agreements that add supply and bring down rates for neighbors. Two projects targeting Angelina County, AmpZ and Hyper Data Grid, remain on hold under his permit freeze.
Angelina County Judge Keith Wright said that without a tax abatement agreement, the county has "zero control" over data centers. Both the county and Lufkin have lobbied lawmakers for oversight. Abbott said communities should decide for themselves and that the Legislature and the Water Development Board are drafting water rules. The next regular session opens Jan. 12, 2027.
In El Paso on Monday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said executive orders can set "guardrails" but can be undone later, and he wants to write them into law, KTSM reported. His Democratic opponent, state Rep. Vikki Goodwin, said Patrick's Legislature gave data centers tax incentives and pledged to regulate them.
The AJC reported Tuesday that a nearly 600-acre Bowie County data center site is being developed by a firm that Georgia's Republican nominee for governor, Rick Jackson, led until recently. The project has become an issue in that race.

Today's Signal: Patrick controls the Senate agenda when the Legislature meets in January. His point that executive orders can be reversed is also a point about the governor's freeze.

5. ⚙️ AB Energy Says It Has 2 GW of On-Site Gas Power Lined Up for Texas and Oklahoma

AB Energy USA, which has its U.S. headquarters in The Woodlands, said it has secured about 2 GW of data center power projects. That capacity is made up of gas-engine modules serving five on-site data centers in Texas and Oklahoma, BIC Magazine reported. The company didn't name the sites or say how the capacity splits between the two states.
The modules use INNIO Jenbacher gas engines and can run absorption chillers on waste heat to make chilled water for cooling. Some projects will also add battery storage. Houston's Eradeh Power Consulting worked on several of the projects as load-side engineer for islanded or behind-the-meter designs.
The company had disclosed about 1 GW when it opened its Woodlands headquarters in March, so its reported total has roughly doubled in six months.

Today's Signal: This is the kind of setup Abbott described in Hemphill, where data centers bring their own power. AB Energy also says it avoids waiting on grid interconnection. Each of these sites would still need a TCEQ air permit, which is frozen for now.

6. ⏳ Save Lubbock Wants Its 90-Day Pause Doubled

Save Lubbock founder Stephen Sanders said Tuesday on 92.3 The Hub that he'll use state law to seek a 90-day extension of Lubbock's proposed 90-day moratorium on large data centers, Lubbock Lights reported. He also raised the possibility of litigation and said the total could reach "about 270 days."
The council voted 5-2 on Sept. 22 to start the moratorium process, which still requires public hearings. The Planning and Zoning Commission holds a work session Thursday at 5 p.m. on large-data-center and power-generation rules, including definitions, the land-use matrix and specific-use standards.
Sanders also said he doubts Lubbock can keep data centers out for good, and that the tax revenue could help once "guardrails" are in place.

Today's Signal: Texas law caps a development moratorium's length and allows one extension. The 270 days Sanders mentioned is longer than that, so that number may depend on how a court reads the law.

7. 🏡 Next Door to the Boom, From Abilene to Taylor

An Abilene resident of nearly 35 years told KTAB on Tuesday that the data center whose entrance sits across the street has brought round-the-clock construction noise, morning traffic backups and lights that keep the night sky white. She said she's glad residents elsewhere now get a chance to say no, which she never had.
CNN's weekend feature on Taylor added one new detail to Paxton's deed probe: a Texas appeals court is now weighing Pamela Griffin's challenge to the Blueprint data center planned on land that a 1999 deed set aside as future parkland. A Williamson County judge dismissed the family's suit in October 2025 for lack of standing.
In El Paso, the City Council on Tuesday advanced an application for up to $4 million in Meta grant money for about 235 solar streetlights, water-saving park irrigation and school-zone crosswalks, KFOX reported. The application is due Oct. 19, and Meta expects to announce awards in early 2027.

Today's Signal: The Abilene resident's comment sums up this year's shift: newer projects face hearings and moratoriums that earlier neighbors never had. Taylor shows the limit of that shift for people like Griffin, who don't own the land and so couldn't get standing in court.

No ERCOT news releases have been posted since Sept. 21, and no new TCEQ air-permit notices turned up for data center or gas projects in the eight tracked DFW counties.

📍 Today's Watch List

Austin's response once it's served in the Save Our Springs records suit, and the City Council's hyperscale ban, which could come to a vote by year's end.
Whether Granbury's recall petitions reach the November ballot, and when the expected court fight over Project Patriot is filed.
Zone Frontier's tenant search for its Potter County campus, and the PUC's review of the Xcel/SPS large-load tariff that would govern its hookup.
The U.S. Senate's vote today on the Ratepayer Protection Act, which the Washington Examiner reports is expected to fail under the 60-vote filibuster.
Lubbock's Planning and Zoning work session Thursday at 5 p.m., and whether Save Lubbock files for an extension or goes to court.
Denton City Council's Oct. 13 vote on its data center code amendments.
El Paso's Oct. 19 Meta grant deadline, and the PUC's McCloud order, due by Dec. 7.
Westlake's Oct. 23 standing hearing on Circle T, and whether Hut 8's Poolin sale won court approval at Tuesday's hearing.
ERCOT's Oct. 12 deadline for data center RFI responses and TCEQ's Oct. 19 compliance update to the governor.
ERCOT's Dec. 10 audit report to the PUC. No material movement is expected before the December PUC meeting.