⭐ Morning Briefing — October 22, 2026

(Thursday, October 22, 2026)

Top Story: TCEQ took its whole STEERS online filing system offline Wednesday and now requires paper applications, because it couldn't reliably keep automated approvals from going to data center construction during Abbott's pause.

📰 Today's News

1. 🔌 TCEQ Pulls the Plug on Its Online Permit System After Data Center Approvals Slip Through the Pause

On Wednesday, Oct. 21, TCEQ announced on its website that STEERS, its electronic filing system "used for automatic authorizations," was temporarily disabled. The portal was inaccessible all day, the Texas Tribune reported. Agency spokesman Ryan Vise said applications "must be physically provided to TCEQ" so staff can check each one for a data center connection.
STEERS handles a wide range of air and water permit applications and companies' operational reporting, and it lets some permits be approved automatically. Construction stormwater coverage works that way: a company files a notice of intent online and the approval comes automatically.
TCEQ said it had suspended the specific data center permits that Public Citizen and FracTracker Alliance flagged this week. Those groups say the agency kept approving stormwater coverage for large data center construction after Abbott's Sept. 21 order.
FracTracker's Sam Law said the shutdown shows the pause "wasn't real" until reporters and watchdogs looked closely, and he called for a moratorium written into law. Kathryn Guerra of Public Citizen said the agency's "rubber stamp worked so well, even the agency had difficulty stopping it."

Today's Signal: This is the first concrete step TCEQ has taken since the pause began, and it goes well beyond data centers. Every company that relies on STEERS for routine air and water filings is now on paper, which shows how hard it is to remove one industry from an automated permitting system. Expect complaints from other industries about the slowdown within days.

2. 🛢️ Kinder Morgan Commits $4.2 Billion to a 434-Mile Gas Line Built Around One Hyperscaler's Power Plants

In its third-quarter results Wednesday, Kinder Morgan said NGPL reached a final investment decision on the Permian Link Project. It is roughly $4.2 billion (about $1.6 billion is Kinder Morgan's share), with about 434 miles of new pipe and 2.8 Bcf/d of capacity.
Kinder Morgan said the line "will serve new power generation for an A-rated hyperscaler," backed by long-term take-or-pay contracts. Target in-service date is the third quarter of 2030, depending on permits. The company didn't name the customer.
Bloomberg's headline and snippet say the pipe will carry fuel "across West Texas and the Panhandle" to a data center. Kinder Morgan's expansion backlog is now $14.4 billion.
For context, Cleanview launched a daily tracker this week covering more than 100 gas plants built to power data centers. It says operating behind-the-meter capacity has nearly doubled since its June report and capacity under construction has roughly quadrupled.

Today's Signal: A gas line with a 2030 start date, sized for a single customer, means one hyperscaler plans to run on its own gas power for years, not as a stopgap until the grid catches up. It also means the plant's air permit will eventually need TCEQ, the agency that just switched to paper filings.

3. ❄️ Carrier Picks Fort Worth for a $600 Million Chiller Plant Aimed at Data Centers

Carrier Global announced Thursday morning that it will invest more than $600 million over three years in a manufacturing and engineering center of more than 1 million square feet in Fort Worth. It expects to create 1,500 jobs and start operations in 2027, according to the company's release.
The plant will expand U.S. production of air- and water-cooled commercial chillers. Carrier cited a record backlog driven by data centers as well as healthcare, education and industrial customers. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the plan, described it as cooling gear for AI data centers.
In August, the Fort Worth Report reported that the city was competing for a $433.8 million Carrier HVAC plant. The final commitment is about $170 million larger.

Today's Signal: The suppliers are coming to DFW along with the data centers. Yesterday JLL said warehouse demand here is following hyperscale construction. Today a cooling manufacturer is committing 1,500 jobs to Fort Worth. Every data center needs chillers, so this investment bets on many more of them, not just one campus.

4. 💧 Chronicle: Nearly a Quarter of Texas Data Centers Sit Where No One Regulates Groundwater Pumping

A Houston Chronicle analysis published Thursday found that nearly a quarter of the 630 data centers planned, under construction or operating in Texas are in areas with no groundwater conservation district. That includes nearly 100 operating or under construction and 61 more planned, as of Oct. 15. In those areas, the rule of capture lets landowners pump without limits or disclosure.
Dallas County has 63 facilities planned or operating and no groundwater district, according to the analysis. Most North Texas cities use surface water, but rural parts of the county rely on the Trinity aquifer.
Adam Foster of the Texas Alliance of Groundwater Districts counted at least 10 efforts to form new districts, including one covering 17 counties in northeast Texas. He called data centers the "main driver." Houston County's petition to TCEQ for a district had a hearing last month and hasn't been decided.
State Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, who chairs the committee that oversees groundwater, said he plans to bring back rule-of-capture legislation when the Legislature convenes in January. He said "we at least need to talk about it."

Today's Signal: Dallas County, with no groundwater district, has more data centers than many states. Abbott's pause applies to TCEQ permits, not wells, and Harris is the first committee chair to say rule-of-capture reform will come up in 2027. That debate could matter more than anything TCEQ does with air permits.

5. 🌬️ Soluna and Applied Digital Plan a 50 MW Wind-and-Grid AI Site in Briscoe County

Soluna Holdings signed a definitive agreement with Applied Digital to build a 50 MW AI data center at Project Dorothy 3. The site is next to the 150 MW Briscoe Wind Farm in Briscoe County, in the Panhandle, Data Centre Magazine reported Thursday.
Applied Digital will put up the capital and own 51% of the joint venture, and Soluna will own 49%. ChronoScale, Applied Digital's majority-owned AI cloud company, signed a non-binding letter of intent to lease the facility. Closing is targeted for year-end, pending leases, power agreements and a Briscoe County tax abatement.
Applied Digital shares rose about 3% Wednesday on the deal and an analyst upgrade, Investing.com reported.

Today's Signal: This is the opposite of the Kinder Morgan approach: a small site placed next to existing wind instead of a new gas supply. Soluna's CEO says energy access, not chips, is the real constraint. In this deal, Applied Digital is building a site that it will then lease to a company it controls, so it's both the builder and the tenant.

6. 📉 Reuters: Wall Street Puts Texas' Governor Race on Its Data Center Risk List

A Reuters analysis published Thursday says investors see the Nov. 3 midterms as a risk to the AI trade as opposition to data centers grows. Morgan Stanley strategists are watching governor races in Texas and six other states.
Analysts quoted by Reuters doubt Congress will pass anything that seriously slows construction. They say state and local races matter more, because those officials have direct control over permitting. A Reuters/Ipsos poll this month found 69% of Democratic voters and 43% of Republicans support limits on data center construction.

Today's Signal: The governor's race was already a data center race in Texas. Now it's also a factor in how investors price these projects, two weeks before Election Day.

7. 🏘️ Dallas' Joppa Neighborhood Weighs Rules That Would Block Data Centers

The Dallas Morning News reported that residents of Joppa, in southeast Dallas, met at a church Tuesday about a plan that could restrict data centers and allow more shops and homes. According to the paper's summary, a small, unmanned data center drew community outrage last month.

Today's Signal: Most data center zoning fights in DFW happen in rural counties. This one is inside Dallas city limits, in a historically Black neighborhood that has dealt with industrial neighbors for a long time.

8. ⚖️ Grid Gatekeeping: Fifth Circuit Backs Texas' Foreign-Ownership Ban; PUC Delays Another 765-kV Rehearing

Texas Scorecard reported Wednesday that the Fifth Circuit upheld the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act against a challenge from GH America Energy, a subsidiary of a Chinese company. ERCOT canceled the company's Blue Star Solar interconnection request in 2022. The panel held that federal CFIUS review doesn't preempt the state's power to decide who can connect to ERCOT.
PUC commissioners will vote Nov. 5 on whether to give themselves more time to consider rehearing motions on the Howard-to-Solstice 765-kV line. That's AEP Texas and CPS Energy's roughly 370-mile line, approved Sept. 11. Landowner group American Stewards of Liberty argues ERCOT never seriously looked at building generation closer to Permian load instead. On Oct. 15, the PUC gave itself the maximum extension on Oncor's Dinosaur-to-Drill Hole line.

Today's Signal: The ruling confirms that Texas, not Washington, decides who gets access to ERCOT. The 765-kV rehearings show that the transmission lines meant to carry power to new Permian and West Texas demand, including data centers, are still being contested.

On today's searches, we found no new TCEQ air-permit filings or public notices in the eight DFW-area counties we track. We also found no PUC large-load docket actions and no noise or nuisance lawsuits. ERCOT's news page couldn't be checked this run.

📍 Today's Watch List

When STEERS comes back online, whether TCEQ lists the stormwater authorizations it suspended, and whether other industries push back on paper-only filing.
Who Permian Link's "A-rated hyperscaler" is, where the line ends, and when the plant it fuels files for an air permit.
Fort Worth's incentive package and site plan for Carrier's chiller plant, and whether the city council has to approve them.
TCEQ's decision on Houston County's groundwater district petition, and the text of Rep. Harris' rule-of-capture bill before the January session.
Briscoe County's tax abatement decision on Dorothy 3, and whether ChronoScale's non-binding LOI becomes a signed lease by year-end.
What comes next on Dallas' Joppa plan, and which city body takes it up.
Denton's Oct. 27 moratorium hearing and first reading.
The PUC's Nov. 5 vote on the Howard-to-Solstice rehearing deadline.
Early voting runs through Oct. 30. Election Day is Nov. 3.
ERCOT's audit wraps up in late November, its reports are due Dec. 10, and the PUC meets Dec. 17. Nothing material is expected before December.