Texas authorities suspend at least 17 data center construction permits and shut down the automatic approval portal after watchdog groups showed it kept issuing them after the governor's pause
Prepared by Sintelligent with the help of SI. Published in SI: . Updated: .
The pause on data center permits in Texas turned out to be leaky until watchdog groups noticed, and applications are now checked by hand.
On September 21 Texas Governor Greg Abbott instructed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to pause issuing data center-related permits until grid operator ERCOT completes its review (until mid-December, per hwbusters). According to October 19 reports by Public Citizen and FracTracker Alliance, the STEERS automatic approval system kept issuing them; after that TCEQ suspended at least 17 permits, including, per hwbusters, projects of OpenAI and Amazon, and closed online filing of applications. TCEQ spokesperson Victoria Cann explained that applications must now be submitted physically so staff can check whether they relate to data centers; the governor's press secretary Andrew Mahaleris said TCEQ "has not taken and will not take any proactive actions" to approve such permits. Kathryn Guerra (Public Citizen) said the agency "failed to follow the governor's directive." In TCEQ's view, stormwater permits allow construction work but not operation of a data center; the watchdog groups consider them authorization to start construction.
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