TCEQ Tells Abbott Data Center Permits Are Paused as Watchdog Lists Approvals
TCEQ told Gov. Abbott it has paused data center permits a month after his order. Public Citizen says agency records show eight stormwater permits issued after the order.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality told Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday that it has stopped issuing permits for data center projects, a month after he ordered the pause. A watchdog group says the agency’s own records show it kept approving some of them in the meantime.
“TCEQ has paused the issuance of all permits related to the construction or development of infrastructure directly supporting data centers,” Interim Executive Director Steven Schar wrote in an October 19 letter to the governor. Staff are screening pending applications, he wrote, and where possible the agency is suspending authorizations that do not require it to issue a permit.
What Abbott ordered
Abbott’s letter of September 21 directed the agency “to halt all permits sought by data centers” until the Electric Reliability Council of Texas finishes auditing data centers seeking to connect to the grid. The governor wrote that the Public Utility Commission, the grid operator and the Texas Water Development Board are gathering information on how data centers affect grid reliability and the water supply, and that “no other state agency shall move forward with regulatory approvals related to data centers until this information is acquired.”
He also said data center projects “must cover all electrical infrastructure costs,” must not use water needed by local communities and must report their power and water use, and that he will work with the Legislature to eliminate financial incentives for them. He gave the agency until October 19 to report back.
What the records show
Public Citizen, a national watchdog group, says a search of the agency’s databases found permits moving after the governor’s letter. By its count, the agency issued eight construction stormwater permits for data center sites between September 22 and October 13, each on the day it was applied for, including sites in Caldwell, Taylor, Ward, Hunt, Milam, Tarrant and Guadalupe counties.
The group also says the agency mailed preliminary decisions on three major air permits on September 22, the day after the governor’s letter, and opened a public comment period on one of them, for a Nexus data center in Hubbard in Hill County, that closes Friday. It says no minor air permits were issued, though at least four advanced in review.
The agency’s construction stormwater page now says the governor “has directed TCEQ to halt the issuance of all permits related to data center projects,” including applications for construction tied to a data center.
The agency’s response
On Wednesday, after the watchdog findings drew attention, the agency said it had suspended the specific data center permits the groups identified, The Texas Tribune reported, and it temporarily disabled the part of its electronic filing system used for automatic authorizations. “To ensure all applications are thoroughly reviewed by agency staff to determine if they are related to data centers, applications must be physically provided to TCEQ,” agency spokesman Ryan Vise said in a statement. A second group, the FracTracker Alliance, also identified stormwater permits it said were approved for data center construction.
What comes next
The agency’s letter does not say when the pause began or which pending applications it covers. The audits the governor is waiting on are still underway.
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