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ARTICLE · 30 SEPTEMBER 2026

Texas Governor Halts Data Center Environmental Permitting

Holland & Knight
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Texas Governor Greg Abbott has directed state environmental regulators to halt all data center permits while the Electric Reliability Council of Texas completes a comprehensive audit of grid interconnection requests. This regulatory freeze represents an escalating response to the rapid expansion of data center development across rural Texas and its impact on local communities during a politically sensitive midterm election cycle.

United StatesEnergy and Natural Resources
Mike Warner
Mike Warner
Brian Thornton
Brian Thornton
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on September 21, 2026, issued a directive to the executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to "pause the issuance of all permits related to data center projects until ERCOT [Electric Reliability Council of Texas] completes its review." The "review" at issue is the Abbott-directed comprehensive audit of data centers projects seeking to interconnect to the Texas electric grid he announced on August 3, 2026.

This is the latest move in the governor's tactical posture of tightening the regulatory constraints on the rapid data center development in Texas.

As Holland & Knight has previously reported, Gov. Abbott's response comes as the dramatic increase in data center development in rural Texas impacts nearby residents, an important constituency in a midterm election cycle. The Texas Legislature has largely followed the governor's lead, with a number of Texas House and Senate committees studying the issue and signaling major changes ahead

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