⭐ Morning Briefing — October 8, 2026

(Thursday, October 8, 2026)

Top Story: The mystery client behind the lawsuit that froze Granbury's recall election has a name, and it's three of the officials facing recall. Court papers reviewed by FOX 4 list Mayor Jim Jarratt, Mayor Pro Tem Bruce Wadley and Councilman Skip Overdier as plaintiffs.

📰 Today's News

1. ⚖️ Granbury's Mayor and Two Council Members Are the Plaintiffs Suing to Stop Their Own Recall

The suit was filed Tuesday, 30 minutes before the council meeting where the recall was supposed to be scheduled, FOX 4 reported Wednesday night after reviewing the filing. Jarratt, Wadley and Overdier are named plaintiffs, and all three are among the officials the petition targets.
Filed by Houston attorney Andy Taylor, the lawsuit asks a court to stop the recall entirely. It alleges the petition is invalid because of "fraud, forgery and other non-accidental defects" by one or more of the people who gathered signatures.
None of the three told the audience at Tuesday's meeting that they were behind the suit. Taylor didn't respond to FOX 4's questions afterward, and the station's emails to all three plaintiffs had gone unanswered as of publication.
Craig Jackson of Voices of Granbury, the group that organized the petition, told FOX 4 he still expects the election to happen. He pointed out that the mayor had campaigned on transparency.

Today's Signal: The charter's recall process now runs through a courtroom, and the officials being recalled are the ones who took it there. Accusing petition circulators of forgery is a serious charge, and residents will want to see the evidence behind it, especially since the annexation fight started over what the council didn't disclose.

2. 🏭 Project Star: a $22 Billion, 6.47-GW Gas Plant in La Salle County to Power a 5-GW Campus

FOX 7 Austin reported Wednesday that the U.S. Commerce Department and South Korea are backing Project Star, a 6.47-gigawatt combined-cycle gas plant in Encinal to be run by NextEra Energy Resources and Related Companies. It's one of the investments under the 2025 U.S.–Korea trade deal, and Construction Review put Korea's share at about $2.4 billion.
Related Digital says the plant will feed a 5-GW data center on the next parcel over, and power the campus doesn't use will go to the Texas grid. The first phase is targeted for 2029 and full output for 2032.
NextEra estimates 8,400 construction jobs and 170 permanent jobs at the power campus. Lewis Energy Group founder Rod Lewis, whose family ranches in La Salle and Webb counties, is a partner, and the developers say they're looking at oil-field produced water for cooling.

Today's Signal: At 6.47 GW, this one plant would be bigger than many entire utilities. It would also land in TCEQ's air-permit queue while the statewide permit freeze is still on. Having the federal government as a sponsor doesn't exempt it from Texas' review.

3. ⏸️ Brownsville Unanimously Advances Its 90-Day Moratorium to a Nov. 4 Final Vote

After its third and last public hearing Wednesday, the Brownsville City Commission voted unanimously to send the temporary data center moratorium to a second and final reading on Nov. 4, ValleyCentral reported.
If it passes, the pause runs from Nov. 5 through Feb. 3, 2027. During that time the city wouldn't accept, process or approve data center applications.
It all started with one filing. On July 1, a company the city hasn't named asked to put a data center in a former Walmart, then withdrew the request later that month. Mayor John Cowen Jr. said the delay gives the city time to study effects on infrastructure, resources and quality of life.

Today's Signal: The project that set this off was withdrawn months ago, so Brownsville is regulating something it doesn't have yet. A border city can set its rules before the next applicant shows up instead of while one is pushing for approval.

4. 🏗️ Project Longhorn Files to Break Ground in Cedar Creek by Late November

Developers of Project Longhorn, a Bastrop County campus that Anthropic could end up leasing, have filed plans for a $366 million first phase in Cedar Creek that could start at the end of November, the Austin Business Journal reported Wednesday. The paper said the project has drawn opposition from neighbors.
Like CyrusOne's Medina County build, Longhorn is going ahead with construction filings while the state freeze on data center permits is still in effect.
In Williamson County, an investor note published on Yahoo Finance Thursday flagged that Prologis' partnership with Skybox Datacenters in Hutto is exposed to the statewide limits on new grid hookups. Hutto officials are still trying to find out whether the site's planned infrastructure can go ahead as designed.

Today's Signal: A permit freeze stops permits, not shovels. Developers seem to be betting that the audit ends before their buildings are ready to turn on, and late November gives Cedar Creek a ground-breaking date weeks ahead of ERCOT's Dec. 10 report.

5. 💲 Who Pays for Grid Hookups: New PUC Large-Load Rules Take Effect, and Xcel Asks for Its Own Tariff

The PUC's new large-load interconnection rules take effect today, according to an analysis Andreessen Horowitz published Wednesday. They set a flat $100,000 study fee and a $50,000-per-megawatt security deposit. A project that loses its reserved capacity for falling two years behind forfeits only 20% of that deposit.
The same analysis says ERCOT has paused energization approvals for loads of 75 MW or more, including 17 projects that had cleared every other step. It says 11 Batch Zero projects have chosen to count their own on-site generation toward their size, and that Chevron now says the permit freeze could push its West Texas power-plant investment decision into 2027.
In the Panhandle, outside ERCOT, Xcel Energy has asked the PUC to approve a large-load tariff, RFD-TV reported. Data centers would pay for the transmission, substations and new generation built for them, sign commitments of at least 15 years, and pay minimum monthly bills and exit fees if they leave early.

Today's Signal: A $50 million deposit sounds like a lot for a 1-GW campus. But a developer who walks away loses only $10 million of it, and the deposit doesn't cover the shared regional lines that cost the most. Xcel's tariff goes further by writing exit fees into the rate.

6. 🔥 Pipeline Company Seeks FERC Approval to Supply a Data Center Power Plant in Deaf Smith County

Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America is asking FERC to authorize its Amarillo Expansion Project, Gas Compression Magazine reported Thursday. The project would add 321,200 dekatherms per day of firm capacity, and together with capacity that's already unsubscribed, the company could sell 550,000 dekatherms per day of firm service.
The service would supply power generation, including a new gas-fired plant for a planned data center in Deaf Smith County. The project also adds a delivery point in that county.
A new Compressor Station 112 in Moore County would run four Caterpillar 3616 units totaling 22,000 horsepower, and the company wants it in service by September 2028.

Today's Signal: Data center power plants are now driving pipeline construction too. That means a federal FERC docket, a compressor station two counties away, and a data center whose operator hasn't been named in the filing coverage.

7. 💵 Taylor Votes Tonight as the Developer's Backers Detail Big DFW Plans

Taylor City Council votes Thursday on annexing and signing a development agreement for the 664-acre Taylor Technology Campus proposed by Big Watt Digital and PowerHouse Data Centers, KEYE and Axios reported.
A Data Center Frontier analysis Wednesday described PowerHouse as having 140 data centers underway or in planning, close to 10 GW across nine markets. Brookfield is buying a minority stake in PowerHouse's parent, American Real Estate Partners, and expects the deal to close this quarter.
PowerHouse's DFW sites include an 810-acre Grand Prairie development listed at up to 1.8 GW, plus the proposed Circle T campus in Westlake: up to four buildings of about 300,000 square feet each, totaling roughly 300 MW. PowerHouse has funded a 350-MW Oncor substation for Westlake.

Today's Signal: To Taylor residents, the vote is about one gas-powered campus. To a developer with Brookfield money behind it, Taylor is one site in a pipeline of nearly 10 GW. How tonight's terms turn out could shape what Grand Prairie and Westlake get offered.

8. 🔊 A Midland County RV Park Owner Says a Crypto Site Is Going Up 40 Yards From His Door

Roland Garcia told NewsWest 9 that bulldozers are clearing land for what looks like a Bitcoin mining facility next to his family's Real Country Living RV Park off State Highway 158. He's worried about noise, water use and strain on the grid.
Garcia said the neighboring tract was sold to a large developer after the owner died. He believes the company runs mining sites in McCamey and Garden City, but the station hasn't confirmed that and hadn't heard back from the likely investor.
Garcia said he knows he can't stop the project and is asking lawmakers to set guardrails for rural landowners.

Today's Signal: Unincorporated Texas counties generally can't zone. The statewide freezes are aimed at the grid, so they don't help Garcia with the noise next door. His case shows why county-level control keeps coming up in candidate surveys.

9. 🏦 Dallas Fed Economist: Pushback Is Slowing Projects but Not the Bond Market

In a Southwest Economy Q&A published Wednesday, Dallas Fed senior financial economist Srini Ramaswamy said about $200 billion in investment-grade bonds have been issued this year to finance the AI buildout, roughly 70% of it in the U.S.
He put construction costs at about $30 billion to $40 billion per gigawatt. He said data center borrowers' preference for long-dated debt is a main reason the Treasury term premium has risen.
He said resistance to data centers may be slowing project timelines a bit, but financing in the capital markets is still "foot on the gas pedal."

Today's Signal: Each of the fights above, in Granbury, Brownsville, Cedar Creek and Midland County, adds delay. The Dallas Fed says investors aren't pricing that risk in yet.

10. 🗳️ Hinojosa Takes Her Moratorium Pitch to Statewide Radio as a TV Survey Finds Legislators Favor Water Limits

Texas Public Radio said Democratic gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa is calling for a moratorium on new data centers until lawmakers pass stronger rules and end their tax breaks. She's taking listener calls on TPR's "The Source" at 12:30 p.m. today. Abbott's campaign turned down the same invitation.
For KPRC 2's ENOUGH series, reporters asked all 181 legislators about data centers. Of the 45 who answered, every one supported limiting data center water use and all but one supported requiring data centers to supply their own power. Sen. Judith Zaffirini said she's drafting a bill to create a separate electric rate class for data centers, and Rep. Mary Gonzalez is targeting nondisclosure agreements.

Today's Signal: With 136 of 181 lawmakers not answering, the survey says more about who's willing to go on record than about how a vote would go. Still, the 45 who replied are almost unanimous.

None of the eight DFW-area counties we track (Collin, Ellis, Johnson, Denton, Wise, Tarrant, Parker and Hood) had a new TCEQ air-permit filing for a data center or gas plant in today's coverage, and we found no new behind-the-meter generation announcement anywhere in the Metroplex.

📍 Today's Watch List

Which court Granbury's case is in, when the first hearing is set, and whether the plaintiffs produce evidence for the forgery claims against petition circulators.
Taylor City Council's vote tonight on the Big Watt/PowerHouse annexation and development agreement.
Gina Hinojosa's live TPR call-in at 12:30 p.m. today.
ERCOT's Oct. 12 deadline for projects of 25 MW or more to report water use and incentives.
Denton's Oct. 13 vote on data center code amendments, San Antonio's Oct. 15 zoning vote, and TCEQ's Oct. 19 compliance update to the governor, which the a16z analysis suggests could be the place to narrow the permit freeze.
Who the developer behind the Midland County site is, and whether the commissioners court gets involved.
Brownsville's Nov. 4 final reading on the moratorium.
Whether Project Longhorn actually breaks ground in Cedar Creek in late November, and whether Anthropic confirms the lease.
Project Star's TCEQ air-permit filings, and NGPL's FERC docket for the Amarillo Expansion Project.
The PUC's ruling on Xcel's large-load tariff.
ERCOT's Dec. 10 audit report to the PUC and when Batch Zero resumes. Nothing material is expected before the December PUC meeting.