A group of Texans believe they’ve discovered evidence that the state’s environmental regulatory agency has continued to
issue permits to data centers
despite Governor Greg Abbott’s call for it to stop.
The nonprofits Public Citizen and FracTracker Alliance, working with local activists in Texas, looked through the public database of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and discovered that the organization has worked on multiple permits for data center projects since Abbott
called for a pause
in the process on September 21. Abbott’s office denied approving any new permits in a statement to 404 Media.
According to Public Citizen and the FracTracker Alliance, which cite documents publicly available on the TCEQ’s website, the agency has reviewed documents and assigned engineers related to more than a dozen permits related to data center projects in the state. Public Citizen
listed more than 15
and the Fractracker Alliance
found 35
. The same day the nonprofits announced their findings,
The Texas Tribune
published a report that Abbott had received
$9 million in donations
from developers and owners of data centers.
According to the documents reviewed by 404 Media, TCEQ issued air-emission limit certificates to a large data center in Houston; approved the construction of stormwater coverage for data centers in
Abilene
,
Barstow
, and
Royse City
; and fast tracked gas power plants for more than a dozen data center projects.
“The TCEQ’s own data indicates that it’s business as usual for data centers and affected communities were promised a freeze. And instead what they’re getting is another reason to distrust the TCEQ and ultimately ineffective attempts to govern by press release,” Kathryn Guerra of Public Citizen said during a press conference on Monday about the findings. “Absent any comprehensive guardrails imposed by the Texas legislature, the industry will continue to move forward as fast as it can, and the TCEQ may let it.”
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