⭐ Morning Briefing — October 6, 2026

(Tuesday, October 6, 2026)

Top Story: Killeen's City Council voted 6-1 Monday night to reverse its September direction requiring a conditional-use permit for every data center, after the interim city manager called that permit requirement effectively a ban. The vote came during what was scheduled as a workshop.

📰 Today's News

1. 🔄 Killeen Reverses Its Conditional-Use Permit Rule for Data Centers, 6-1, During a Workshop

At a joint City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission meeting Monday, Killeen's council voted 6-1 to direct staff to bring back an alternative data center ordinance without the conditional-use permit (CUP) requirement it had backed in September, the Killeen Daily Herald reported.
Councilman Charles Kimble, the lone no vote in September, made the motion. Councilwoman Mellisa Brown, who proposed the CUP so the city could "pull that permit" over electricity or water problems, cast the only vote against it and called the motion "inappropriate."
The meeting was posted as a workshop, and the motion came up during an item about how often the council and P&Z should meet. City Attorney Holli Clements said that was legally permissible because a motion of direction is not formal action. Interim City Manager Kent Cagle, who retires Friday, said a CUP was essentially a ban on data centers.
The Herald reported that one council member, asked what he had voted on, couldn't say and referred the reporter to the city attorney.

Today's Signal: A CUP would have required a public hearing for each project, the tool residents in Dallas's Joppa neighborhood and elsewhere have been asking for. Killeen is now moving away from it. No ordinance has passed yet, so the alternative staff brings back will show what review, if any, replaces the CUP.

2. 🪖 Fort Bliss Data Center Shrinks and Moves, but Still Plans Gas Power

After a Monday stakeholder meeting with the Army and the Carlyle Group, U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar said the planned Fort Bliss data center has been reduced in scale and moved, but is still too close to homes, KTSM and KFOX reported.
Escobar said the project will likely use brackish water sent to the Kay Bailey Hutchison desalination plant, which she called a positive change. She said it remains "on track" to use gas generation, which she called "an additional serious concern," and she will keep pushing for a different site and renewable power.
KFOX has previously reported the project could use more power than all of El Paso. Neither outlet reported a new size or location.

Today's Signal: The project is on an Army post, so a city zoning vote won't decide it. Escobar is relying on the Army and Carlyle choosing to keep meeting with the community, and the gas plant appears to be the main issue still unresolved.

3. 🇰🇷 Seoul Confirms $2.4 Billion for Project Star and Tells Lawmakers It Meets the Commercial-Viability Test

At a parliamentary audit Tuesday, South Korean Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il confirmed that about $2.4 billion, roughly 10% of Project Star's estimated budget, was sent to Washington last Thursday, The Korea Times reported via Yonhap.
Opposition lawmaker Rep. Lim Lee-ja argued that parliament would need to approve the investment if the project were not commercially viable. Lee answered that the 6,472-MW gas plant in Encinal meets that test.
Lee said the Alaska LNG project in the same investment package is still being reviewed for viability. That makes the Texas plant the only one of the two he told lawmakers has passed that review.

Today's Signal: Korea's finance ministry has now told its parliament the Encinal plant is commercially viable. In Texas, the plant still needs its air permit. That puts more weight on TCEQ's Oct. 19 compliance update to the governor.

4. 🔌 Skybox Says It Won't Know Its Hutto Power Allocation Until 2028 and Markets Project Sequel for Industrial Use

Skybox Datacenters has rezoning for its 140-acre Project Sequel site in Hutto, but Chief Development Officer Haynes Strader told the Austin Business Journal that the company won't know how much grid capacity it can get until 2028, The Real Deal reported Monday.
Skybox and Prologis plan to close on the land in February and will market it as an industrial build-to-suit, while still seeking power for two data centers on about half the site.
The Real Deal reports the first Hutto project, PowerCampus Austin, has leased all four planned buildings to tenants including Google. That campus is where Skybox filed last week for its $550 million fourth building.

Today's Signal: Two Skybox projects a few miles apart in Hutto are in different positions. PowerCampus has substations and tenants and is adding buildings, while Sequel can't get a power answer for two years and is being marketed for industrial use in the meantime.

5. 📭 EPA Proposal Could End Required Public Comment on Minor-Source Air Permits Like Many Data Centers'

An EPA proposal from this summer would remove the federal requirement for public notice and comment on most "minor source" air permits, Southern Environmental Law Center attorney Amanda Garcia told Marketplace Tuesday. She said many data centers and some power plants qualify as minor sources by accepting emissions limits.
Garcia said states could still require public comment. The EPA said in a statement that its proposal lets states "pick how they want their permitting process to go for minor sources" and does not weaken emission standards.
Last weekend's Lufkin emails showed the Amp Z developer's 600-MW turbine plant staying just under a federal major-source threshold. That kind of minor-source status is exactly what this proposal would affect.

Today's Signal: If the rule is finalized, whether Texas residents get to comment on minor-source permits for data center power plants would be up to TCEQ. Amp Z's permit shows the agency treats the line between minor and major sources as negotiable.

6. 📡 A 2-MW Dallas Site and a Texas Cell Tower Anchor a New Inference Joint Venture

Nasdaq-listed Forum Markets formed Forum Edge AI, a 51%-owned joint venture with Texas-based Edge Node, Data Center Dynamics reported Tuesday. It starts with 2 MW of a 4-MW Dallas data center, with the other 2 MW expected late this year or early next.
The venture will also put 1 to 2 MW of compute at a mobile-tower site in Texas near the Dallas facility, expected by mid-2027, under agreements with SBA Communications and Tillman Infrastructure. Forum said it wants sites "where the power and the permits already exist."

Today's Signal: This is far smaller than a hyperscale campus, and it's the kind of small facility Dallas zoning allows by right. Dallas's proposed moratorium memo, still waiting on its committee, targets hyperscale projects, and state Rep. Venton Jones has said small facilities near neighborhoods need the same scrutiny.

7. 🗳️ Data Centers Lead the Bastrop County Judge Race as Brownsville Holds Moratorium Hearings

In an Austin American-Statesman Q&A published Monday, incumbent Bastrop County Judge Gregory Klaus said residents are "mainly concerned about the impact of data centers." Democratic challenger Dock Jackson said residents oppose data centers in the county. Klaus said he'll keep pressing the Legislature for more local authority.
The Brownsville City Commission scheduled the second of three public hearings on a proposed data center moratorium for its 5 p.m. meeting Tuesday, and the third for 5 p.m. Wednesday, according to a City of Brownsville post.

Today's Signal: Bastrop County can't zone, so its judge's race comes down to which candidate will push hardest for authority the 2027 Legislature would have to grant. Brownsville is a city and has that authority, and it could vote on a moratorium as early as Wednesday.

ERCOT posted no new news releases Tuesday, and no new TCEQ notices surfaced for data center or gas projects in Collin, Ellis, Johnson, Denton, Wise, Tarrant, Parker or Hood counties.

📍 Today's Watch List

Killeen staff's alternative data center ordinance without a CUP, and whether it comes to a formal vote.
Brownsville's moratorium hearings at 5 p.m. today and Wednesday.
Taylor City Council's Oct. 8 vote on the agreement to annex a 664-acre data center development, as reported by KUT.
Whether the Army or Carlyle releases the new Fort Bliss site, size and gas plant details.
ERCOT's Oct. 12 deadline for data center RFI responses, and Denton City Council's Oct. 13 vote on its data center code amendments.
San Antonio's Oct. 15 zoning vote, and TCEQ's Oct. 19 compliance update to the governor, which could cover Amp Z and Project Star.
EPA's final action on its minor-source public-comment proposal, and whether TCEQ keeps notice and comment if it can drop it.
Skybox's February close on Project Sequel, 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.