Following Texas's data center boom -- energy demands, water use, economic impact, and communities navigating rapid tech expansion.
New Braunfels would keep data centers at least 2,000 feet from homes, schools, parks, churches, day care centers, nursing homes and trails under a draft zoning ordinance the city’s Planning Commission takes up in a public hearing Nov. 4, according to the commission’s agenda packet.
A company that wants to plug a large data center into the Texas grid would sign one standard contract that makes it post cash-backed guarantees, report how much water it will use and disclose its backup generators, under a draft the Public Utility Commission of Texas will consider Nov. 5.
Governor Greg Abbott directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to take immediate steps to protect residential electricity customers from the financial impacts of data center expansion in Texas.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) board of directors has endorsed a new large-load screening framework that is already reshaping which massive technology infrastructure projects will advance on the state's power grid.
A proposal for two East Texas counties to jointly study the effects of solar farms, data centers, and high-capacity water wells failed on a tied vote in Smith County Commissioners Court on June 2.
This week, the explosive expansion of artificial intelligence and cloud computing infrastructure across Texas emerged as a central point in economic and legislative debates.
The Sulphur Springs City Council voted Tuesday to change its agreements for a 3,000-megawatt data center project and phase out its current developer.
A Texas developer has filed a federal lawsuit against Hill County, asking a judge to strike down a one-year data center moratorium that county officials openly acknowledged they believed was illegal before voting to approve it.
A formal opinion request asking whether Texas counties have the legal authority to pause data center construction has been under review at the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) for more than three months.
The Blanco-Pedernales Groundwater Conservation District submitted a formal resolution to Texas lawmakers on May 13 requesting explicit legal authority to deny industrial water permits to data centers.
State Representative Hillary Hickland (R-District 55) said in a formal statement on social media that Texas’ rapid data center expansion must not come at the expense of natural resources or grid stability.
In the latest episode of Tribcast, discussion focused on how Texas could be heading toward a high-stakes legislative showdown over a decade-old sales tax exemption for data centers that has grown from a $5.4 million incentive to a multi-billion dollar taxpayer burden.
Texas Grid Bracing for Massive Demand Growth In a recent episode of Texas Talks: Future of Texas series, ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas and Texas 2036’s Jeremy Mazur detailed the state's strategy to maintain grid reliability amid a projected doubling of electricity demand over the next decade.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) filed a preliminary long-term load forecast on April 15, 2026, projecting that electricity demand in the region could reach approximately 367,790 MW by 2032.