⭐ Morning Briefing — October 13, 2026

(Tuesday, October 13, 2026)

Top Story: Hood County commissioners take up the Comanche Circle data center at 9 a.m. today. Its developer says he'll sue if they say no, and Protect the Paluxy Valley says it will sue if they say yes.

📰 Today's News

1. ⚖️ Hood County Takes Up Comanche Circle Today With Lawsuits Threatened Either Way

Hood County Commissioners Court holds a 9 a.m. public hearing today on the Comanche Circle data center campus near Dinosaur Valley State Park, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Monday night. WFAA also previewed the meeting.
The meeting packet includes an Oct. 1 email from Ryan Hughes of Florida-based Sailfish Investors to County Attorney Matt Mills. If commissioners approve the development plan, Hughes offers to shrink the project to 1,375 acres and accept voluntary limits on setbacks, cooling, light pollution and county road damage. If they don't settle, he says he'll sue, build on an 83% larger footprint with no restrictions, and the county will face millions in damages. He calls a county-wide refusal an "illegal de facto moratorium."
Joanne Carcamo, co-founder of Protect the Paluxy Valley, said Monday the group will take "immediate legal action" if commissioners approve. She noted there are nine data center proposals in the county and said approving one would force approval of the rest.
Background from the same report: NRG withdrew its application for a gas plant to power Comanche Circle in June, and Gov. Greg Abbott endorsed the project in August as compliant with his summer directives.

Today's Signal: The county is being threatened with a lawsuit whichever way it votes. Hughes's email sets his offer against Abbott's permit pause, and he also told commissioners that saying no would put them "on the side of Bernie and AOC." That's a political pressure campaign aimed at a five-member court.

2. 🏭 Opponents Say TCEQ Is Moving Toward Approving NRG's 1.2 GW Plant Near Maypearl, Despite the Pause

In a release distributed Sunday, the opposition group No Maypearl Data Center said residents received TCEQ letters describing a preliminary decision to approve the air permit for NRG Prairie Energy Center LLC. The project is a 1.2 GW air-cooled gas plant on about 2,850 acres in rural Hill County, along F.M. 66, roughly 800 feet from the Ellis County line, near Maypearl, Itasca and Grandview.
According to the group, the plant would serve a proposed hyperscale campus of 24 buildings totaling more than 8 million square feet, with about 2.5 GW of demand. The project also includes six substations and an onsite wastewater plant discharging into Chambers Creek.
The group says NRG labeled its emissions calculations trade secrets, and much of the released file is redacted. It also argues that siting just outside Ellis County avoids the stricter controls of the DFW ozone nonattainment area. Both are the group's claims; Power Grab TX could not independently confirm the decision date, comment deadline or hearing-request deadline.
The release says the decision conflicts with Gov. Abbott's Sept. 21 directive pausing TCEQ permitting for data center projects.

Today's Signal: If the letters say what the group says they do, the pause has a gap: a gas plant permitted as a power plant can keep moving even when the data center it serves is the reason it exists. The comment and contested-case deadlines on that notice are the next thing to pin down.

3. 🛢️ The Hudspeth CEO Apologizes, Shrinks the Footprint to 2,000 Acres and Names Gas as the Power Source

ServerDomes Group CEO David J. Keegan sent KTSM a statement Sunday, published Monday, apologizing to Hudspeth County residents for not telling them about the Desert Haven project before ground was broken. He called waiting an "error of judgment" and said he takes full responsibility.
Keegan said the campus would cover 2,000 acres, not the 24,000 County Judge Joanna MacKenzie described. It would have 10 domes, each 500 feet across and 65 feet tall and each powered by a "behind-the-meter gas solution," with room for solar on the site.
He said the $15 billion first phase includes a fire station with four vehicles, a medical center with an emergency vehicle, a leisure center with a pool, an emergency helipad, 200 to 300 jobs, and work on local water service and roads emergency vehicles can't use. He described the water system as a closed loop filled once, plus rainwater, gray water and brown water kept on site.
Keegan and staff plan to attend the Oct. 27 Commissioners Court meeting and the community's Oct. 31 Halloween event.

Today's Signal: This partly answers yesterday's question about fuel: it's gas, burned on site, in 10 separate dome-sized installations. What the statement doesn't mention is an air permit, and with TCEQ's data center permitting paused, it's unclear how that gets done.

4. 🚚 Oracle Has Been Trucking Gas to Its Shackelford County Campus

Citing Bloomberg, Data Center Dynamics reported today that Oracle has used truck deliveries of compressed natural gas at its under-construction campus with OpenAI in Shackelford County, Texas, as well as at a Salt Lake City site it has supplied by truck for more than a year while waiting on a pipeline.
Oracle is reportedly considering the same approach for Project Jupiter in New Mexico, where the state land office rejected a gas pipeline extension in July. Oracle sent a force majeure notice to Blue Owl Capital in September.

Today's Signal: Trucked gas is a sign of how far ahead of the pipes these campuses are running. In Texas, each tanker delivery adds truck traffic on roads the county maintains, and nobody votes on that.

5. 💸 Bloomberg Prices the Texas Build-Out, and BNEF Puts 49.8 GW Behind the State's Pause

A Bloomberg analysis published Monday, as summarized by Crypto Briefing, puts shell-and-core construction at $190 to $340 per square foot, or about $11.3 million per megawatt. It says typical project costs have roughly doubled to about $1 billion, with steel up 22% year over year, aluminum up 40% and copper wire up 17.9%.
BloombergNEF estimates the pause on new data center grid connections during the ERCOT queue audit could delay about 49.8 GW of data center load, nearly 20% of the U.S. pipeline, putting up to $15 billion in costs and revenue at risk.

Today's Signal: At $11 million a megawatt, a delayed 1 GW campus is a $10 billion-plus asset sitting idle. That's why developers like Hood County's are threatening lawsuits instead of waiting out the audit.

6. 🗳️ Talarico Goes on Air Against Paxton Over Data Center Money, and the Tribune Gets Both on the Record

Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico launched a TV ad Monday saying Republican Ken Paxton "gave data centers billions in special tax breaks" while taking nearly half a million dollars in contributions, Newsweek reported. A NOTUS analysis of FEC records found at least $448,000 through June from people and committees tied to the industry.
In a Texas Tribune Q&A published today, Talarico said he'd make large energy users pay for their own infrastructure, end tax deals, set federal minimums for new projects and let communities decide. Paxton's answer cited his plan for efficient water systems, industry-paid infrastructure and ending sales tax breaks, and his support for Sen. Tom Cotton's DATA Act for off-grid power. Libertarian Ted Brown opposed a one-year moratorium and said there should be no subsidies or eminent domain.
Talarico holds a CNN town hall Oct. 14, and early voting runs Oct. 19 to 30.

Today's Signal: Both major candidates now say the industry should pay its own infrastructure costs and lose its sales-tax break. The real dividing line is local control: Talarico says communities should decide, while Paxton supports a federal off-grid exemption that would take decisions away from local regulators.

7. 🏛️ Killeen Drops the Permit-by-Permit Approach, and the State's Pause Freezes Anything New

Killeen City Council reversed an earlier decision to pursue a conditional use permit process for data centers and will instead write zoning conditions into its code, KXXV reported. Small data centers would be allowed by right, with size tiers for medium and large ones.
Development Services Director Wallis Meshier said no new data centers will be permitted in Killeen until the state's audit is finished. Councilmember Mellisa Brown pointed to data centers in nearby Temple drawing on the same grid and water supplies.

Today's Signal: By-right approval for small sites means the council won't get a vote on them. Developers are already breaking projects into smaller pieces elsewhere, so how Killeen defines "small" matters a lot.

8. 🐄 Winchester Residents Ask Fayette County to Block a 400-Acre Site on FM 448

Three Winchester residents asked the Fayette County Commissioners Court last Thursday to stop a proposed data center on more than 400 acres along FM 448, the Fayette County Record reported Monday. La Grange-Winchester LLC, which appears from state filings to be a subsidiary of Austin-based PlaceMKR, has the land leased with an option to buy.
They asked for a no-abatement policy, independent stormwater and emergency-response studies, and answers on water, noise, lighting and power. TxDOT's Yoakum District says it has no plans to widen FM 448 and no driveway permit requests. LCRA, which has a substation and gas peaker plant nearby, says it has no agreement to sell power to PlaceMKR.
A second community meeting is set for Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. at St. Michael's Park in Winchester.

Today's Signal: Counties can't zone, but drainage and platting rules are real tools. The residents' request to use "every ounce" of that authority is a practical plan that other rural counties can copy.

No new ERCOT news releases or PUC large-load docket action turned up for today, and the only new TCEQ permitting item was the Hill County plant just outside the eight tracked counties.

📍 Today's Watch List

The result of today's 9 a.m. Hood County hearing on Comanche Circle, and whether Sailfish Investors or Protect the Paluxy Valley files first.
The comment and contested-case hearing deadlines on TCEQ's preliminary decision for NRG Prairie Energy Center, and whether TCEQ explains how it fits under the governor's pause.
Denton City Council's vote tonight on data center development code amendments (300-foot setbacks, SUPs, closed-loop cooling), with the moratorium hearing following Oct. 27.
How ServerDomes plans to permit 10 gas installations in Hudspeth County, ahead of the Oct. 27 Commissioners Court meeting.
Talarico's CNN town hall on Oct. 14 and early voting starting Oct. 19.
The NRC commissioners' meeting in Arlington and San Antonio's zoning vote, both Oct. 15.
TCEQ's Oct. 19 compliance update to the governor.
Killeen's draft size tiers for data centers.
Winchester's Nov. 2 community meeting on the FM 448 site.
Brownsville's Nov. 4 moratorium reading and Project Matador's Nov. 23 NRC comment deadline.
ERCOT's Dec. 10 audit report and the restart of Batch Zero. Nothing material is expected before the December PUC meeting.