Texas

Texas escalated to a full statewide permitting freeze. On September 21, 2026 Governor Abbott directed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to halt issuance of all permits for data center projects statewide until ERCOT completes its grid audit (expected mid-December 2026), expanding the pause beyond grid interconnection to environmental permitting; the directive states no state agency shall proceed with regulatory approvals related to data center development until the ERCOT and Texas Water Development Board audits are complete, and it applies even to fully 'islanded' facilities relying on behind-the-meter generation. TCEQ must report compliance to the Governor's office by October 19, 2026. Texas now has an effective statewide pause on new data center grid connections. On August 3, 2026 Governor Greg Abbott directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas and ERCOT to conduct a comprehensive verification and audit of every data center advancing through ERCOT's interconnection queue, and ERCOT halted its 'batch zero' large-load transmission planning study (which reviews requests of 75 MW or more) until the review concludes. State officials say roughly 250-300 projects representing about 200 GW of requested demand — more than twice ERCOT's all-time peak — are covered, and that the audit will take several months; developers must disclose state financial assistance, power and water use projections, generation sources, ownership, and community impact mitigation. Projects outside ERCOT or relying purely on behind-the-meter generation may fall outside the directive. Local action accelerated in parallel. On June 16, 2026 the San Marcos City Council voted 4-3 to make data centers ineligible in every zoning district — the first outright municipal ban in Texas — a move State Sen. Paul Bettencourt says exceeds the city's authority under Texas preemption law. Fort Worth's City Council voted unanimously on August 11, 2026 to begin a 90-day moratorium and a three-part regulatory plan including an 11-member Data Center and Infrastructure Commission, with findings due November 3 and a final vote set for February 16, 2027. Keller voted unanimously on August 19 to sue neighboring Westlake over a 1.1 million-square-foot facility sited 506 feet from Keller homes and to start its own 90-day moratorium. El Paso County commissioners approved a resolution on August 18 asking the state for a development pause and expanded county authority, and Austin scheduled a council work session for August 25 on siting, water, noise and lighting rules. Hill County's May 2026 county moratorium was rescinded in June after a developer sued for more than $100 million, and Tom Green County abandoned its own effort in response — a reminder that county-level pauses remain legally fragile in Texas. In Lubbock, the city accepted a citizen petition on August 26 for an 18-month moratorium on high-water, high-energy data centers, with a September 8 public hearing and a 30-day window for the council to adopt or reject it. Austin held a council work session August 25 on siting, water, noise and lighting rules. Lubbock's council passed a nonbinding resolution in September 2026 pledging to hold off on large-scale data centers pending new rules, with a petition-led 18-month moratorium vote set for late September. On September 14, 2026 Governor Abbott directed the Texas Water Development Board to penalize data centers and other large water users that failed to file mandatory water-use surveys — only about 28% of data centers responded over three years — with consequences including permit ineligibility, referral to prosecutors and possible bars on utility connections. In October the statewide freeze showed enforcement gaps: TCEQ issued an air permit on October 13, 2026 to Sitespan LLC for a data center project between San Antonio and Seguin despite the Governor's pause, then suspended it after public scrutiny and said it is shutting down its automatic filing system to review data center applications manually. Separately, Arlington staff proposed zoning options that would confine stand-alone data centers to industrial districts with specific use permits, a 300-foot residential setback and a ban on evaporative cooling. The November 3, 2026 election added a political dimension to the statewide freeze: Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, who won the governorship, has pledged to keep data center approvals paused until the Legislature passes ratepayer and water protections when it convenes in January 2027, meaning Abbott's agency-level permitting pause is likely to persist or expand through the transition.