{"id":398505,"date":"2026-08-05T17:36:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T17:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/398505\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T17:36:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T17:36:33","slug":"city-officials-evaluating-what-statewide-data-center-audit-means-for-fort-worth-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/398505\/","title":{"rendered":"City officials evaluating what statewide data center audit means for Fort Worth projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fort Worth officials decided to pull their plans to provide an update Tuesday on regulations and a potential pause on data centers after Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state regulators to audit<\/a> the supercomputer hubs using various criteria before they can move forward.<\/p>\n

Fort Worth staffers are \u201ctaking a step back\u201d to understand how Abbott\u2019s orders impact the city and proposed data centers in the area, Assistant City Manager Jesica McEachern said at Tuesday\u2019s city council meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause if a project can\u2019t get approval to connect to the grid, we don\u2019t know really then what that timing looks like to move forward,\u201d McEachern said in reference to proposed data centers.<\/p>\n

Council members were set to receive a presentation<\/a> on Tuesday from McEachern on data center regulations and what the process of implementing a moratorium would require, city documents show.<\/p>\n

City staffers are in the process of obtaining more information on how the statewide pause applies to projects that have already been approved<\/a> and which projects would be subject to an audit, McEachern added.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Abbott ordered the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to enforce a standstill on data centers until audits<\/a> can be conducted.<\/p>\n

The audits are to include information on a data center\u2019s tax exemptions, power usage and generation, water use and cooling methods, ownership and how operators will mitigate impacts to local communities, according to a news release.<\/p>\n

Failure to comply with those requirements will deny data centers connection to the electric grid, which encompasses 90% of the state, the release states.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s order follows an earlier directive in June, when Abbott directed regulators to require data centers to fully fund the costs of their power infrastructure<\/a> and take other steps to ensure utility bills for residents are not impacted.<\/p>\n

In place of a presentation on data center regulations and a moratorium process, McEachern briefed council members on the number of public meetings Fort Worth has hosted so far regarding the tech hubs.<\/p>\n

That includes the July 8 zoning commission meeting, when commissioners voted 7-4 for the denial<\/a> of the city\u2019s proposed zoning regulations on data centers.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s public meetings have been frequented by residents, citing concerns about how data centers can affect local water supplies, the power grid, air quality and quality of life.<\/p>\n

With the zoning commission\u2019s recommendation, council members were originally set to vote on those regulations at an Aug. 11 meeting, along with other standards on noise, water requirements and business incentives.<\/p>\n

Instead, the council will vote on whether to enforce a moratorium. This comes after a majority of Fort Worth council members voiced their support for a moratorium<\/a> in a letter dated July 9.<\/p>\n

Nicole Lopez is the environment reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at nicole.lopez@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Report\u2019s environment coverage is supported by the Marilyn Brachman Hoffman Foundation.<\/p>\n

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article<\/a> first appeared on Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Worth officials decided to pull their plans to provide an update Tuesday on regulations and a potential…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-398505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398505","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=398505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}