Texas freezes new data center grid hookups until every project passes an audit
Governor Greg Abbott ordered a halt to approving new data center connections to the Texas grid until regulators audit each project's power and water use, tax breaks, community impact and ownership. The queue is enormous: grid operator ERCOT is tracking more than 1,800 projects asking for over 474 gigawatts — more than five times the grid's record peak demand — and about 90% of those requests are data centers. Projects that fail the audit will be denied a connection; no timeline has been set.
Why it mattersTexas has been the promised land of the US AI buildout — cheap land, fast permits, its own grid. If even Texas is pumping the brakes over electricity and water, the infrastructure phase of the AI boom just hit its first real wall, and other states are likely to copy the playbook.
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