Texas Governor Abbott halts new data center connections to the state's power grid pending a comprehensive audit, citing 1,800 pending projects requesting 474 gigawatts—five times historical peak demand.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has announced a moratorium on all data center approvals through the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) until both agencies complete an audit of data centers seeking approval to connect to the state's electric grid. According to The Texas Tribune, Abbott is requiring applicants to provide tax break information, power use and generation details, water use and cooling operations data, community impact reduction measures, and facility ownership documentation. Applicants that have not submitted these details will not be permitted to connect to the grid.
"Our top priority is to protect Texans' safety and quality of life," Abbott stated. "Any project that fails to comply with the requirements set forth by the PUCT and ERCOT, and by state law, must be denied connection to the Texas grid. Simply put, Texans must come first."
The review originated from several data centers' failure to comply with a PUCT survey designed to determine water and power usage. The agency had requested the required information from 377 data center companies, but only 28 had submitted their responses at the time of the announcement.
While not a statewide moratorium, the directive significantly impacts many data center projects in the ERCOT approval pipeline. More than 1,800 projects are awaiting approval to connect to the grid, with approximately 90 percent being data centers. The combined power demand from these applications is projected to reach 474 gigawatts—five times the current peak demand that ERCOT has recorded and substantially higher than forecasted data center demand by 2035.
The measure will slow data center development in Texas but does not affect all projects, unlike the comprehensive statewide ban imposed by New York. El Paso, Texas, for instance, operates outside ERCOT's jurisdiction, allowing data center developments to proceed unimpeded in that region. Additionally, projects that bring their own power generation are unaffected, as they do not require connection to the ERCOT grid.
Opponents contend the directive is insufficient without legislative action. Commissioner Sid Miller of the Texas Department of Agriculture stated on the department's official Facebook page: "Without legislative action, this directive is all hat and no cattle—empty political rhetoric wrapped in meaningless fluff. Texans need laws with teeth, not another press release designed to make it look like something is being done while hyperscale projects continue moving forward."
State Representative Gina Hinojosa, Abbott's opponent in the November 2026 gubernatorial race, offered harsher criticism. "So nice to see another strongly worded letter from Abbott after he proudly made Texas the wild west of data centers," she stated. "Abbott's call for a 'pause' could be for one day—and no one buys it. He's taken millions from data center CEOs while giving Texans lip service to non-existent restrictions."