⭐ Morning Briefing — October 1, 2026

(Thursday, October 1, 2026)

Top Story: Archer County commissioners passed two resolutions Monday opposing TCEQ permits tied to a planned Google hyperscale data center near Wichita Falls. One targets wastewater discharges that could reach Lake Wichita, and the court cited Gov. Abbott's Sept. 21 permit directive as backing.

📰 Today's News

1. 🚱 Archer County Takes Aim at the Permits Behind Google's Wichita Falls-Area Campus

The Archer County Commissioners Court passed two resolutions Monday against a hyperscale data center Google plans on 3 Way Road in a rural part of the county, the Wichita Falls Times Record News reported Thursday.
The first opposes two TCEQ wastewater permit applications from Dynamo Ventures LLC, which is building the project for Google. The county says treated wastewater could run through open tributaries into Lake Wichita and threaten residents and livestock. County Judge Randall Jackson objected to a plant that would "dump 95,000 gallons a day" in the county.
The second asks TCEQ to reconsider a permit it already approved for a City Concrete Inc. batch plant at the site. The county cites water for dust control on roads and stockpiles, plus cement and ash dust.
The resolution says the court "fully supports and aligns with" Abbott's Sept. 21 directive to TCEQ. The county also asked that any TCEQ hearing be held in Archer County, and Jackson expects state Rep. James Frank, R-Wichita Falls, to back that request. Frank has publicly opposed the project.
Jackson said the county doesn't have authority to stop the permits but that the resolutions put them on TCEQ's radar.

Today's Signal: Abbott's freeze put new data center permits on hold. Archer County is going after the smaller permits around one project: a wastewater discharge and a concrete plant that was already approved. Counties can't zone, but they can still file objections, ask for hearings and get their legislator involved.

2. 🗳️ Senate Blocks the Ratepayer Protection Act as Texas Candidates Stake Out Data Center Plans

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted 57-43 to advance the Ratepayer Protection Act, short of the 60 votes needed, Reuters reported. The bill would have required state utility regulators to consider whether data centers and other large users should pay the extra cost of power infrastructure built for them. Only four Democrats voted yes. The House had passed it 417-3 on Sept. 16.
Democrats called it a "toothless messaging bill" and are pushing the GRID Savings Act, which would make large data centers pay the full cost of the grid upgrades they need.
In Texas's own Senate race, FOX 7 Austin compared the two candidates' plans on Wednesday. Ken Paxton's four-point "Texas First Data Center Plan" would ban Chinese technology from U.S. data centers, make companies criminally liable when their facilities power chatbots that endanger children, co-sponsor the DATA Act, and back Abbott's proposals to limit rural siting and repeal sales-tax exemptions. His plan doesn't say whether local governments would get final approval.
James Talarico, who has the flu, joined Wednesday's U.S. Hispanic Business Council forum by video, Nexstar reported. He said data centers are "exacerbating the affordability crisis" and are going up "in people's backyards" with "no input." His July plan calls for repealing data center tax incentives, giving residents more say on projects, and creating an "AI Dividend."

Today's Signal: Both Texas Senate candidates now say they'd repeal the sales-tax break, and both say data centers should pay for their own power. The real difference is who approves a project: Talarico says local residents should, while Paxton's plan doesn't say. With the federal bill stalled, the Texas Legislature is now the likeliest place for these rules to get written.

3. 🏗️ Colovore Files for a $430 Million Data Center at AllianceTexas

Colovore filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation for "Colovore Alliance," a $430 million data center on vacant land at 14700 Heritage Parkway in the Denton County part of Fort Worth, west of I-35W. Data Center Dynamics and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported the filing.
The filing lists 156,500 square feet across four data halls and a 42,000-square-foot screened equipment yard, with construction running from December 2026 to December 2028. The landowner is AIL Investment LP, which DCD identifies as a likely Hillwood affiliate.
Colovore is owned by investment firm King Street, which bought it in 2024. Its website already shows it pre-leasing space at the site and lists a 32-MW DFW02 in Fort Worth alongside a 44.8-MW DFW01 in Mesquite. A city spokesperson said in September that Colovore wasn't being considered for economic incentives.

Today's Signal: The filing went to TDLR, which reviews buildings for accessibility, not TCEQ, the agency under Abbott's freeze. Unless the project needs an air permit for on-site generation, the freeze may not slow it. And because the site is inside Fort Worth city limits, Denton's new special-use permit rules don't apply to it.

4. ⚖️ A Bankruptcy Judge Reopens Bidding on Poolin's Texas Sites, With $80 Million Tied to AI Tenants

A New Jersey bankruptcy court signed an order Sept. 30 reopening bidding on Poolin's Texas mining properties, TokenPost reported. Competing bids are due by noon ET today, and the public auction is set for 10 a.m. ET Friday, Oct. 2.
A Hut 8 affiliate stays on as stalking-horse bidder, with $100 million in cash at closing and up to $80 million more in milestone payments. Those payments depend on future data center leases using the sites' power: AI, high-performance computing, cloud and colocation projects count, but crypto mining doesn't.
Thor CALAP had the top bid at the Sept. 10 auction, $180 million to Hut 8's $179 million. When negotiations with Thor failed, Poolin picked Hut 8's deal for its "greater transaction certainty." If someone else wins this round, Hut 8 gets a $3 million break-up fee plus $250,000 in expenses.

Today's Signal: Under this deal, $80 million of the price depends on landing AI and cloud tenants, and mining tenants don't count. That shows bidders value these Texas sites mainly for their existing power hookups, which could become data centers.

5. ☀️ Meta Signs a Gonzales County Solar Deal Smaller Than Its El Paso Gas Plant

Meta signed a power purchase agreement with Apex Clean Energy for Starling Solar, a 144-MW project in Gonzales County, Inside Climate News reported Wednesday. Apex says the project wouldn't have been built without Meta, and it's scheduled to start operating next year.
Meta gets all of the project's environmental attributes, so it can count the solar against the gas power used by its data centers. The new gas plant planned for Meta's El Paso data center is 366 MW, more than twice the size of Starling. Earlier this year Meta also quietly left RE100, Climate Group's corporate renewable-energy initiative.
Apex and Meta project $27 million in tax revenue and $26.3 million in landowner payments over the project's life, plus 400 to 450 construction jobs. IEEFA analyst Dennis Wamsted said Meta is "taking what could be called the easy way out" by building whatever it can, as fast as it can.
Separately, Hart Energy reported Wednesday that analysts expect Abbott's permit freeze to delay new behind-the-meter power projects for data centers, while projects already underway are largely protected.

Today's Signal: A solar contract improves Meta's emissions accounting, but the El Paso gas plant will still burn gas. As Hart Energy's analysts describe the freeze, it will mostly hit the next round of on-site gas projects, not the ones already being built.

6. 🎤 Patrick Says ERCOT's CEO Told Him Data Centers Are Pressuring the Grid

Campaigning in Lubbock on Wednesday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he has a plan to build more natural gas plants as data centers strain ERCOT, KCBD reported. He said ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas recently told him "the grid is under pressure because of data centers."
His Democratic opponent, state Rep. Vikki Goodwin, said Texas gave data centers $1 billion in incentives in 2025 and that the total could reach $3 billion to $3.5 billion in coming years. An August Texas Politics Project poll had her trailing Patrick 42% to 35%.
In Ellis County, independent write-in candidate for governor Jenn Mack told a Sept. 23 Save Our Red Oak meeting that Abbott and Democratic nominee Gina Hinojosa both favor pausing new projects. She said work should stop on all of them, "even those that are in progress right now," the Waxahachie Sun reported Thursday.

Today's Signal: Patrick's answer to grid strain is more gas plants, which fits Abbott's call for data centers to bring their own power. But gas plants need TCEQ air permits, and those are frozen until the audit is done.

Quiet today on TCEQ air permits in the eight tracked DFW counties. No new ERCOT large-load or readiness-test announcements turned up, though ERCOT's news page couldn't be reached directly this run.

📍 Today's Watch List

Whether TCEQ grants Archer County's request to hold any hearing on Dynamo Ventures' wastewater permits locally, and whether Rep. James Frank formally backs it.
The Poolin auction: competing bids due at noon ET today, auction Friday at 10 a.m. ET.
Whether Colovore Alliance needs any state permit covered by the freeze before its planned December groundbreaking, and who signs its pre-leases.
Lubbock's Planning and Zoning work session tonight at 5 p.m. on large data center and power-generation rules.
Killeen's joint City Council and Planning and Zoning meeting Monday, which includes data center zoning amendments.
Texas's voter registration deadline Monday, Oct. 5, and the start of early voting Oct. 19, with data centers now a campaign issue in the Senate, lieutenant governor and governor races.
Denton City Council's Oct. 13 vote on its data center code amendments.
ERCOT's Oct. 12 deadline for data center RFI responses, and TCEQ's Oct. 19 compliance update to the governor.
Westlake's Oct. 23 standing hearing on Circle T.
ERCOT's Dec. 10 audit report to the PUC. No material movement is expected before the December PUC meeting.