{"id":443782,"date":"2026-09-22T07:06:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T07:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/443782\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T07:06:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T07:06:21","slug":"gov-greg-abbott-directs-texas-commission-on-environmental-quality-to-halt-data-center-permits-office-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/443782\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Greg Abbott directs Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to halt data center permits, office says"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas (KTRK) — Gov. Greg Abbott’s office announced on Monday that the governor directed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ)\u00a0to halt all data center permits.<\/p>\n

In a release<\/a>, the governor’s office said he directed the commission to halt permits until the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) completes its audit of data centers. According to the state officials, the audit is to ensure that the data centers’ development “does not compromise the reliability of the Texas electric grid and does not put Texans\u2019 natural resources at risk.”<\/p>\n

This announcement follows Abbott’s previous announcement that he directed the Texas Water Development Board to penalize data centers that don’t obey state water laws.<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS REPORT: Gov. Greg Abbott calls for data center penalties if not complying with state water laws<\/a><\/p>\n

The governor’s office laid out guidelines for data center projects, stating that they must cover all their own electrical infrastructure costs, not use water needed by local communities, report electricity and water usage, and complete the ERCOT audit.<\/p>\n

\u201cSimply put, Texans must come first,\u201d Governor Abbott stated in the release. \u201cData centers must pay their own way, protect our grid and water, and complete the ERCOT and TWDB audits. Until they do,\u00a0TCEQ\u00a0will issue no permits sought by data center projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: State leaders look to enact more regulation when it comes to data centers in Texas<\/a><\/p>\n

Rice University political science professor Mark Jones suspects the governor\u2019s pause on permitting is really about buying time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he’s thus done is given the legislature time when it reconvenes in January to pass new regulations on data center construction and data center operation,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

The governor has said he wants lawmakers to eliminate tax breaks for data centers.<\/p>\n

In Jacinto City, city leaders are celebrating Monday\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

Earlier in September, they learned a company named Raeden was looking to convert an abandoned factory into a data center and said they were powerless to stop it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now it looks like it\u2019s actually gonna be stopped by the governor\u2019s office, so that\u2019s a good thing,\u201d City Manager Lon Squyres said.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday night, the city council will vote on an ordinance requiring special use permits for data centers with strict restrictions on noise and water use.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also concerned about the potential impact on the electric grid, which is why they\u2019re hoping state lawmakers take action when they meet next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know the ERCOT grid as well as the state does, obviously, and we don\u2019t want to do anything that would impose a limitation or draw on resources that would put our residents in peril,\u201d Squyres said.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas (KTRK) — Gov. Greg Abbott’s office announced on Monday that the governor directed the Texas Commission…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[153260,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-443782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-153260","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443782","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=443782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}