The Public Utility Commission of Texas has sued Attorney General Ken Paxton to keep secret the counties where data centers and cryptocurrency mines operate, after his office ruled the information must be released under the Texas Public Information Act.
The commission filed suit October 5 in Travis County’s 200th District Court. It is challenging two open-records rulings Paxton’s office issued September 2 and September 11. Those rulings ordered the release of two fields from the commission’s Energy and Water Use Survey: each facility’s county and its state regional water planning area.
The Legislature ordered the survey in the 2025 state budget, through a rider directing the commission to study water use by data centers and virtual currency mining facilities. The commission sent it to 377 facilities. As of August, 77 data centers and 13 crypto mines had answered, the Texas Tribune reported.
The commission argues that the two fields are what make the rest of the survey dangerous. The rulings also ordered the release of each facility’s electric load, projected peak load, cooling systems, water sources and the utility that connects it to the grid. “Standing alone, those fields describe an unidentified facility somewhere in Texas,” the petition says. Paired with the county and water planning area, it argues, they become “a facility-specific map of points at which Texas’s electric and water infrastructure may be targeted.” The commission says the Texas Homeland Security Act makes such information confidential.
The commission is not asking the court to seal the whole survey, only those two fields.
The records were requested between May and July by reporters at the Texas Tribune, the Texas Observer and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and by two private individuals. Under state law, they may join the suit.
The Legislature asked how much power and water these facilities use. Two state offices now disagree over how much of the answer Texans get to see.
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