Get Off of My Cloud – Texas Moratorium on Data Center Grid Connections Disrupts U.S. Project Pipeline

Amid the partisan schisms dominating political debate as Election Day approached, a dramatic shift in public opinion on a single issue drew bipartisan support: opposition to data centers. The unprecedented surge in state legislation and regulation to stall or ban future development included Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s moratorium on new data center grid connections, which his successor, Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, is expected to continue. In today’s RBN blog, we review the disruption caused by the Texas moratorium, how it might change as the state moves into new leadership, and assess its potential impact on the multibillion-dollar, off-grid megaprojects in development by hyperscalers like Amazon and Microsoft.

Large-scale data center development began in the mid-2010s and accelerated late in the decade as cloud computing, or delivering applications through the web, took shape. However, it reached a “boom” phase in 2022 as AI workloads exploded. Initial public reaction was mildly positive, focused on general benefits such as tax revenue and job growth, but it turned sharply negative. State lawmakers across the U.S. introduced data center legislation at unprecedented levels as public opposition intensified. According to The Washington Post, more than 375 bills mentioning data centers have been introduced in 2026 — exceeding the combined total from the previous three years. There were 41 measures related to data centers on the ballot November 3 across 13 states, with nearly all proposals designed to block or restrict development headed for passage, according to Ballotpedia, most by wide margins.

Amid the shift in public sentiment, New York Governor Kathy Hochul enacted a one-year moratorium on new large-scale data centers in July, while major restrictions were imposed by states with significant past development, including Illinois, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. However, the most significant may be the moratorium on new data center grid connections in Texas, the largest and fastest-growing data center market (see God Blessed Texas), as projected demand surged. Abbott sent a letter to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on August 3, in which he directed the agency to perform a data center audit and pointed to “recent legislative hearings and public meetings” that “raised important questions regarding the impact of data centers on the grid and on the local communities in which they operate or seek to operate.”

The shift in policy came after an intense lobbying push against data center development in the state, including a contentious 15-hour public hearing. Concerns have been amplified because the reliability of the Texas grid has been challenged during major severe weather events in recent years, most notably 2021’s Winter Storm Uri, which led to efforts to strengthen the grid’s reliability while also balancing costs. The governor, who was seeking a fourth term, had previously hailed Texas as “the epicenter of AI development” after Google announced a $40 billion investment in the state.

Under the new directive, ERCOT’s audit will examine whether data centers are providing their own power or depending on the grid; their use of water; and which data centers are utilizing state or federal assistance such as tax incentives, grants or abatements. “Any data center project that fails to comply with the verification and audit process to protect the reliability and resilience of the Texas electric grid must be denied,” the governor said in his letter. 

Abbott followed the August announcement with a September 21 directive to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to halt all permits sought by data centers until ERCOT completes its audit of proposed projects. ERCOT is expected to release two reports on December 10. One would list the projects that qualify for its Batch Zero process (more on that below); the other would cover the impact of medium- and large-sized data centers on local communities, with an open meeting of the Public Utility Council of Texas (PUCT) to follow on December 17. 

Hinojosa’s platform during the campaign went a step further. The governor-elect called for Abbot to impose the moratorium in July and said in October that she would ban all data center approvals until the Texas Legislature passed laws to address concerns in several areas, including protections for power and water resources, enhanced control for communities impacted by data center developments, provisions to ensure that developers cover infrastructure costs without increasing households’ electricity or water bills, and an end to tax incentives. The Legislature’s next session begins January 12 and runs through May 31. Hinojosa will be sworn in as governor on January 19. 

(We should note that Keisha Lance Bottoms and Amy Acton, Democrats that were elected governor in Georgia and Ohio, respectively, on November 3 also proposed moratoriums during the campaign, with differing conditions. Both states are major data center hubs. Georgia ranks third nationally in planned facilities, while Ohio ranks fourth in operating facilities, according to a Pew Research Center analysis earlier this year.)

Data Centers and ERCOT

According to the most recent ERCOT report, large-load interconnection requests total about 466 GW, which is more than 5X Texas’s highest record peak electricity demand. Approximately 90% of the new power requests are related to data centers (blue bar segments in Figure 1 below), with much smaller shares related to cryptocurrency (orange bar segments), industrial sites (gray bar segments) and other facilities (yellow bar segments). The large-load queue has soared over the last year, more than tripling from 136 GW in Q3 2025 to 466 GW in Q3 2026. The number of data center-focused projects has more than quadrupled, from 98 (72% of the total) to 421 (90% of the total) over the same period.