Following Texas's data center boom -- energy demands, water use, economic impact, and communities navigating rapid tech expansion.
The agency that runs the electric grid for most of Texas began sending formal demands for documents on Sept. 9 to the companies behind the giant power users it has tentatively placed at the front of the connection line, and warned that any one of them that fails to answer completely within 10 business days will be dropped from that line.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas is set to vote Sept. 11 on the permanent rule for connecting the state's largest new electricity users to the grid.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Aug. 10 that OpenAI will comply with the statewide standards and guidelines he established for data centers, according to a news release from the governor's office.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Aug. 10 that Meta will comply with the standards and guidelines he established for data centers in Texas, according to a news release from the governor's office.
State Representative Drew Darby asked the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Monday to hold a public meeting in Tom Green County before the agency acts on four air quality permit applications tied to a proposed data center campus near Dove Creek.
The Texas House Committee on State Affairs will take public testimony Wednesday, Aug. 19, on the two biggest fights on the state’s grid — data centers and the proposed 765,000-volt transmission lines — according to the hearing notice posted on the Legislature’s schedule.
Governor Greg Abbott announced that data center companies Skybox, Digital Realty, and Mara will comply with the standards and guidelines he established for data center development in Texas, according to an Aug. 7 press release from the governor's office.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced that QTS Data Centers has committed to comply with the statewide data center standards and guidelines he established earlier this summer and to participate in the state's comprehensive audit, according to an Aug. 6 news release from the governor's office.
Texas has stopped telling data centers whether they can plug into the state's power grid, and no one has said when it will start again.
Texas has drawn more than $140 billion in capital commitments across four major artificial intelligence and infrastructure projects, making the state the industrial backbone of American AI, according to a new economic report released this month by Build American AI, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that advocates for U.S. leadership in emerging technologies.
Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday ordered the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to conduct a comprehensive verification and audit of every data center advancing through ERCOT’s interconnection process — and to finish the audit before any additional data center is approved to move forward.
This week, the expansion of artificial intelligence data centers emerged as the single most urgent policy challenge before the Texas Legislature.
The state agencies that keep the lights on told a Senate panel Wednesday that Texas is planning for a grid nearly double the size of today’s — and that the surge is being driven by an unfamiliar customer: the data center.
A sales tax break that cost Texas an estimated $14.6 million a decade ago is now on track to cost the state roughly $3.3 billion in a single two-year budget — and on Monday the Senate’s budget-writing committee spent the better part of a nine-hour hearing asking whether taxpayers are getting their money’s worth.