State and local policy
Texas policy actions
Recorded policy actions for Texas. This is not a finding about every local government in the state.
Texas: Temporary approval and permit pauses pending reviews—not a permanent ban on existing facilities.
How the Texas actions fit together
These Texas records are related instruments. None is recorded as superseding another. Together, the approval and permit directives are a temporary approval and permit pause pending an audit. This is not a permanent ban on existing facilities. The 3 August 2026 letter tells the Public Utility Commission and ERCOT to audit data centers advancing through ERCOT interconnection before any additional data centers are approved to move forward. It states no end date. ERCOT's 3 August 2026 market notice postponed Batch Zero classification of large loads past 7 August 2026. ERCOT's 20 August 2026 presentation says energization approvals are paused for data centers and virtual-currency mining facilities of 75 MW or greater until Batch Zero eligibility verification is complete. The 14 September 2026 board update says that pause continues until the verification and audit and the community-impact review are complete. Those materials give 10 December 2026 as a report-filing goal, not as a legal expiration. That energization pause does not, on ERCOT's description, apply to non-data-center large loads or to medium loads. The 21 September 2026 letter tells TCEQ to halt permits sought by data centers until ERCOT completes its review, and it says no other state agency should move regulatory approvals forward until the requested information is acquired. 19 October 2026 is a compliance-update date, not an expiration. The same letter says the governor will seek legislation to eliminate data-center financial incentives. That legislation is not recorded as enacted. The Comptroller was still describing the sales-tax exemption program on 22 September 2026.
| State | Locality | Jurisdiction | Action | Status | Stage | Effective | Expiration | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | Statewide or grid-wide | State | Statewide permit or approval pause | In effect | Permitting | 21 September 2026 | None scheduled | TCEQ data-center permit pause Primary source |
| Texas | Statewide or grid-wide | State | Reporting or resource-use requirement | In effect | Reporting | 14 September 2026 | None scheduled | Water-use reporting enforcement directive Primary source |
| Texas | Statewide or grid-wide | State | Statewide permit or approval pause | In effect | Interconnection | 3 August 2026 | None scheduled | ERCOT approval pause pending audit Primary source |
| Texas | Statewide or grid-wide | Regional grid | Grid-interconnection pause | In effect | Interconnection | 3 August 2026 | None scheduled | ERCOT large-load interconnection pause Primary source |
| Texas | Statewide or grid-wide | State | Enacted legislation or regulation | In effect | Interconnection | 20 June 2025 | None scheduled | Large-load interconnection standards Primary source |
| Texas | Statewide or grid-wide | State | Incentive or explicitly supportive policy | In effect | Incentive | No single effective day is stated | None scheduled | Data center sales-tax exemption Primary source |
Download the policy dataset (JSON). Policy actions are not facility, project, claim, update, or directory counts.