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- calendar_today October 20, 2026
Background: Abbott's Directive to Halt Data Center Permits
Last month, Governor Greg Abbott issued a directive aimed at halting the approval of permits for new data center projects in Texas. The order, sent to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) in a letter dated September 21, was intended to allow state agencies to review the impact of these energy-intensive facilities on both water resources and the state’s power grid. Abbott stated that "no other state agency shall move forward with regulatory approvals related to data centers until this information is acquired."
Public Records Analysis Shows Continued Permitting Activity
Despite Abbott’s order, a new analysis by oil and gas watchdog group FracTracker, conducted in collaboration with Public Citizen, indicates that the TCEQ did not fully stop the permitting process for data center projects. The groups identified 35 permitting actions by the TCEQ for data centers in the weeks following Abbott's moratorium.
FracTracker and Public Citizen found that the TCEQ continued reviewing applications, issuing approvals, fast-tracking certain permits, and assigning engineers to others. “These actions do not signal an agency trying to pause,” the organizations asserted in a press release Monday.
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Responds
Steven Schar, the interim executive director of TCEQ, addressed Abbott’s directive in an October 19 letter, stating that agency staff were screening pending permit applications to determine their relevance to the governor’s request. "If a permit application is subject to the directive, TCEQ has paused that permit application," Schar wrote.
However, permitting documents showed that since the September 21 directive, TCEQ had fast-tracked or assigned engineers to 14 permits, approved stormwater coverage for 11, certified emissions estimates for seven projects, and issued public notices for three others. This activity was documented by FracTracker and Public Citizen through public records requests.
Governor’s Office Clarifies the Moratorium
In response to questions, Abbott Press Secretary Andrew Mahaleris clarified that the moratorium applied specifically to the approval—not the processing—of data center permits. "No permits have been approved," Mahaleris said. "In line with the Governor’s directive, TCEQ has not taken and will not take any proactive actions related to the approval of data center permits."
Impacts of Ongoing Permitting and Environmental Concerns
The continued permitting actions are particularly significant given the environmental concerns associated with the digital infrastructure buildout in Texas. The permits relate primarily to the construction of gas power generation facilities designed to serve large-scale data centers, many of which are planned for artificial intelligence operations.
According to the permitting documents, these projects would emit tens of thousands of tons of regulated pollutants and over 100 million tons per year of greenhouse gases—an amount comparable to the annual emissions of a mid-sized industrialized nation. FracTracker and Public Citizen highlighted that the power projects now proposed in Texas are among the largest in the country and are mainly intended to supply energy-intensive data centers.
Specific Projects Advanced After the Moratorium
The analysis found that just one day after Abbott’s moratorium on September 22, the TCEQ sent notices of preliminary approval to three significant projects: the NRG Prairie Energy Center, VoltaGrid’s ABI-1 power plant, and Nexus’s self-powered data center in Hubbard. Public comment periods for some of these projects commenced in the following days.
Other projects moving forward included stormwater management permits for major data center construction at Caldwell Valley Technology Park in Caldwell County, Crusoe’s Abilene campus, and EdgeConneX’s Cedar Creek campus. Records also indicated a new permit application from Edged Energy in Dallas in early October, with initial engineering review completed within days.
Calls for Transparency and Review
FracTracker’s report concluded that regulatory actions were inconsistent with Governor Abbott's stated intent of providing an actual pause to evaluate environmental and resource impacts. "We need an actual pause to study the threats posed to the land, water and livelihoods of Texans," said Sam Law, manager of communications at FracTracker and report author.
The findings underscore ongoing public opposition and growing scrutiny over the environmental and infrastructural consequences of Texas’s rapid digital infrastructure expansion.
Source: texasobserver.org.
