⭐ Morning Briefing — October 2, 2026

(Friday, October 2, 2026)

Top Story: The U.S. and South Korea picked Project Star, a $22.3 billion, 6.47-GW gas plant in Encinal, as the first project under Korea's U.S. investment pledge. It's built to power a 5-GW data center campus next door, and its own announcement says it still needs permits.

📰 Today's News

1. 🇰🇷 Washington and Seoul Pick a $22.3 Billion Gas Plant in Encinal to Power a 5-GW Data Center Campus

The U.S. Commerce Department and South Korea announced Wednesday evening that Project Star in Encinal, La Salle County, is the first investment under Korea's $200 billion U.S. commitment. Related Companies and NextEra Energy Resources will develop, build and operate the 6.47-GW gas plant, and San Antonio-based Lewis Energy Group will supply the land, produced water and gas, according to the developers' release.
The plant would directly power a privately funded 5-GW data center campus that Dallas-based Related Digital is developing next door, and send excess power to ERCOT. The two governments would own the energy campus jointly. Across Korea's U.S. investment projects, returns are split equally until Seoul recovers its principal and interest, then 90% go to the U.S., The Korea Herald reported.
Seoul sent its first $2.4 billion payment Thursday, The Korea Herald reported. Initial units could come online as early as 2029 "subject to required permitting and approvals," according to the release, with full operations targeted for 2032. The developers project about 8,400 jobs at peak construction and roughly 170 permanent jobs at the plant.
Related's Jeff Blau said the project will "meet the high bar Governor Abbott has set" by bringing its own power. Chosunbiz reported Friday that the deal doesn't guarantee Korean suppliers any share of the contracts, so Doosan Enerbility's turbines will have to compete with GE Vernova, Siemens Energy and Mitsubishi Power in a tight global turbine market.

Today's Signal: Project Star is the biggest example yet of the bring-your-own-power model Abbott has called for. But a 6.47-GW gas plant needs a major TCEQ air permit, and the freeze covers data center projects that make their own power, so the project's own release lists permitting as the main condition on its 2029 start.

2. ⏳ The Permit Freeze May Push Back Chevron's Project Kilby

Semafor reported Thursday that the final investment decision on Project Kilby, a gas-powered Microsoft data center near Pecos, could slip from the end of this year into 2027 because of Texas politics, according to The Next Web's summary. Kilby plans about 2.67 GW of on-site gas turbines.
Energy Forge One, a 50/50 joint venture of Chevron and Joulent, signed a 20-year power deal with Microsoft in June. Abbott's order covers projects that make their own power, like Kilby, which the August grid-connection pause didn't reach.
Chevron's power solutions VP Daniel Droog said regulation has caused "some slowdown or potential delay" for AI projects across Texas, but that Kilby is still on track for power in 2028. Early earthwork is underway. Joulent CFO Michael Wortley said construction contracts are days to a couple of weeks from signing, and he expects the project to get its permits.

Today's Signal: Kilby is the first large named project to say publicly that the freeze may affect its schedule. A later investment decision likely means a later turbine order too, in the same tight turbine market Project Star now has to buy into.

3. 🏗️ Crusoe Files for a $4.8 Billion Two-Building Campus in Kent County

Crusoe filed two Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation applications for data center buildings along County Road 233 in Jayton, Kent County, Data Center Dynamics reported Friday. Each building is about 759,260 square feet, and the total investment is listed at $4.8 billion.
Construction would start at the end of January 2027, with the buildings going live in May and July 2029. The filings call them "spur buildings" of Project Hyper, Crusoe's development in Childress, north of Jayton. That puts Project Hyper's total investment across both sites at about $12 billion.
In Childress, two buildings are already under construction and a third is expected to start this month, all targeting the first half of 2028. That campus is the 1.4-GW Lancium site, where earlier reports say Meta will lease capacity. Crusoe also builds the OpenAI site in Abilene and Google's Armstrong County campus.

Today's Signal: Like Colovore's Alliance filing, this went to TDLR, which handles building review, not to TCEQ. TDLR registrations keep coming in during the freeze. What remains unclear is whether these sites will need an air permit for on-site power, which would put them under the freeze.

4. 📣 The Industry Launches a Coalition, and the Tribune Counts $343 Million in Local Spending

The Lone Star Infrastructure Coalition launched Thursday to make the economic case for data centers and power plants in Texas communities that are pushing back, Bloomberg and Crypto Briefing reported. Members include Blackstone's QTS, NextEra Energy, Siemens Energy, Quanta Services, the Nuclear Energy Institute and Lancium. Jimmy Glotfelty is its president.
A Texas Tribune analysis published Thursday found data center companies have given or invested more than $343 million in Texas communities over the past year. The Tribune says the total is likely an undercount, and much of the money went to places that had opposed the projects.
Examples include QTS replacing the failed water tower in Turkey, a Panhandle town of about 275 with a $500,000 annual budget, at an estimated $3 million to $5 million. Rowan Digital Infrastructure pledged $38 million for Temple's water infrastructure, and Google pledged $6 million for nonprofits in Haskell, Stamford and Rule plus $4.5 million to fix a leaking pipeline in Vernon.
In Childress, which has been under a boil-water notice for a month, Lancium is building a 16-mile pipeline to deliver 1 million gallons a day of treated well water from the Blaine Aquifer to the city at no cost, according to City Manager Kevin Hodges. The same analysis notes 57% of Texans in an August poll opposed a data center in their own community.

Today's Signal: QTS, NextEra and Lancium appear in both the coalition and the Tribune's spending list. In towns like Turkey and Childress, the companies are now paying for basic services such as water, which may make local opposition harder to organize.

No new TCEQ air-permit notices turned up for data center or gas projects in the eight tracked DFW counties. No ERCOT large-load or readiness-test announcements surfaced in this run's searches.

📍 Today's Watch List

Project Star's TCEQ air permit, and which turbine maker wins the order for the 6.47-GW plant.
Whether Kilby signs its construction contracts in the next two weeks, and whether its investment decision lands this year or in 2027.
Wichita Falls City Council's Tuesday 8:30 a.m. meeting, where it will consider an Emerging Technologies Advisory Commission, as neighboring Archer County presses TCEQ for a local hearing on Google's wastewater permits.
The result of today's court-run Poolin auction for its Texas sites, which was scheduled for 10 a.m. ET.
Arlington's possible data center development standards, after the Fort Worth Report said Thursday that small facilities are more likely there than hyperscale.
Crusoe's Jayton groundbreaking, planned for January 2027, and the third Childress building, due to start this month.
Killeen's joint council and P&Z meeting and Texas's voter registration deadline, both Monday, Oct. 5.
Denton City Council's Oct. 13 vote on its data center code amendments.
ERCOT's Oct. 12 deadline for data center RFI responses, TCEQ's Oct. 19 compliance update to the governor, and 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.