UNDER PRESSURE FROM HINOJOSA, STATE WILL AUDIT DATA CENTERS AND STOPS ALL CONSTRUCTION ACROSS THE STATE, INLCUDING ANY PROPOSED FOR BROWNSVILLE

An exercise in redundancy?: The Brownsville City Commission is hosting a Data Centers Workshop on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. at City Hall to discuss local infrastructure impacts, resource consumption, and potential land-use regulations. 

By Michael Garcia

KETK.com

AUSTIN, Texas (KETK) – On Monday – faced calls from his governor’s race opponent, Texas State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, to put a moratorium on all data center construction in the state – Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to audit all data center projects that are connecting to the state’s grid.

The PUCT and have been tasked with doing a comprehensive “verification and audit” of any data centers in the state that are working through ERCOT’s grid interconnection process.

According to the state, no data center projects are allowed to move forward with construction until this audit is completed. The governor’s office noted that any data center project that fails to comply with the PUCT and ERCOT will not be allowed to connect to the state’s power grid.

“Any project that fails to comply with the requirements set forth by the PUCT and ERCOT, and by state law, must be denied connection to the Texas grid, " read a statement from the governor's office. 

As recently as last week, Gov. Greg Abbott faced calls from his governor’s race opponent, Texas State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, to put a moratorium on all data center construction in the state.

The nonprofit group Save Cedar Creek Lake said Abbott’s audit and the pause on construction falls short of being a “real” moratorium in their view.

“We are not asking the Governor to cancel the audit. We are asking him to widen it into a real moratorium before the scope hardens,” the group said in a press release Monday. “If a data center cannot get a power connection during your audit, it should not be able to get a water contract, an air permit, or a tax abatement either. Pause all of it, publish what you find, and tell us when the pause ends.”

In total, ERCOT is reportedly considering over 474 gigawatts worth of requests from facilities looking to connect to the state power grid and around 90 percent of those requests are from proposed data centers.

To put that into perspective, the Department of Interior lists 1 gigawatt of power as enough to power between 225,000 to 300,000 average homes for a year. By those numbers, the amount of requests ERCOT is currently reviewing could power between 106,650,000 and 142,200,000 average homes for a year.

PUCT and ERCOT will collect the following information from each data center project that they audit:

* “Information detailing the extent to which data centers are paying their own way or depending on the state for financial assistance. That would include all state and local tax incentives, grants, abatements, or other public financial assistance received or expected to be received.”

* “The extent to which data centers are providing their own power or depending on the ERCOT grid for that power. Details should include projected annual and peak electricity consumption; and any effort and progress to construct or procure on-site electric generation including generation type, or other measures to reduce demand on the ERCOT grid.”

* “The extent to which data centers are bringing their own water and reusing their own water as opposed to using water needed by local communities. The details should include projected annual and peak water consumption and anticipated sources of water supply. You must also obtain information about the cooling technology that will be utilized, including whether the facility will employ air-cooled, closed-loop, or another water-efficient cooling system.”

* “The extent to which data centers are using measures to reduce impacts on neighboring property owners and communities, including noise mitigation, light controls, setbacks, traffic improvements, emergency response coordination, and other community protection measures, understanding that each community is unique.”

* “Information detailing the ownership and controlling interests in the project.”