{"id":380262,"date":"2026-07-21T00:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T00:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/380262\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T00:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T00:01:08","slug":"state-leaders-look-to-enact-more-regulation-when-it-comes-to-data-centers-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/380262\/","title":{"rendered":"State leaders look to enact more regulation when it comes to data centers in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A new letter from the Texas Public Utility Commission<\/a> to Gov. Greg Abbott shows state leaders are in favor of more regulation when it comes to data centers.<\/p>\n

That indicates a big shift in thinking, according to University of Houston Professor Dr. Ramanan Krishnamoorti.<\/p>\n

“The idea a year ago was to bring in data centers of all stripes, all kinds,” he explained. “And consumer affordability was not a big factor in play.”<\/p>\n

Krishnamoorti said the recent correspondence between Abbott and PUC Chairman Thomas Gleeson tells a new story.<\/p>\n

“Clearly the rate of growth was staggering to the point where it was clear that it was going to affect either grid reliability or grid affordability as it pertains to residential customers,” Krishnamoorti said. “I think they’ve realized that both reliability and affordability are crucial for the consumers in the state.”<\/p>\n

Abbott, who wrote to the PUC on June 10<\/a> with a list of mandates regarding data centers, made it clear they shouldn’t come at the expense of everyday Texans.<\/p>\n

“Data centers must operate in ways that reduce costs for residential electricity customers, do not drain water needed for our communities, and take into consideration the needs of our neighborhoods,” wrote Abbott.<\/p>\n

One of Abbott’s mandates to Gleeson requires new data centers to pay the full cost of the infrastructure needed to join the state’s electric grid.<\/p>\n

He also asked the PUC and ERCOT to come up with new ways to protect residents and small business owners from rising costs and energy usage related to the centers.<\/p>\n

Krishnamoorti said such steps could give the state a chance to “catch up” when it comes to regulations on the emerging industry.<\/p>\n

“The government regulators are always two steps behind. In this case, the bad thing with data centers is they are moving at the speed of light,” he said. “Whereas the regulation is moving at the speed of a tortoise.”<\/p>\n

The professor said major changes will have to wait until the next legislative session to be enacted.<\/p>\n

In his letter, Abbott acknowledged he’ll be working with the legislature on a variety of issues related to data centers during that session, including finding ways to be more efficient when it comes to water usage.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A new letter from the Texas Public Utility Commission to Gov. Greg Abbott shows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[134354,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-380262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-134354","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}