Abbott Orders State Water Board to Penalize Uncompliant Data Centers
Abbott says noncompliant facilities could face misdemeanor charges, permit denials and interconnection blocks as Texas audits more than 300 data centers.
- On Monday, Governor Greg Abbott directed the Texas Water Development Board to penalize data centers that fail to disclose water consumption, targeting facilities ignoring state-mandated reporting requirements amid rapid artificial intelligence infrastructure growth.
- Texas faces rising water demand from industrial users, yet compliance remains low; of 329 facilities surveyed in 2025, only 22.5% responded, complicating efforts to develop a water plan that "meets the needs of Texas."
- Failing to submit surveys may result in Class C misdemeanors and civil or criminal violations, with non-compliant users becoming "ineligible to obtain permits, permit amendments, or permit renewals" from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
- Abbott ordered the board to provide an update on enforcement actions by October 14, while coordinating with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas on a separate audit of data centers requesting grid connections.
- The state maintains a "pause" on data center approvals until regulators complete this audit, as ERCOT plans to finish its review by December, gathering data on water consumption and cooling technologies.
46 Articles
46 Articles
Greg's Folly: Texas Gov. Abbott Gets Hoisted On His Own High-Tech Petard
Greg Abbott, the right-wing hack who is governor of Texas, probably doesn't know what a "petard" is, but he's now been hoisted by a big one. "Hoist on a petard" is a Shakespearean phrase for a bomb maker being blown sky-high by his own creation.Abbott's bombastic saga began last year, when he noticed that high-tech billionaires were waving political cash at lawmakers who'd help them build massive AI data centers across America. Sniffing a quid p…
Texas Gets Tough: Gov. Abbott Orders Crackdown on AI Data Centers that Skip Mandated Water Surveys
Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has directed the Texas Water Development Board to penalize data centers that fail to report their water usage, after state records showed most facilities have ignored the mandatory survey for years.
Corsicana Daily Sun
Abbott orders Texas water agency to penalize data centers that don’t report water usage
Gov. Greg Abbott has directed the Texas Water Development Board, the state agency tasked with overseeing the state’s water planning process, to penalize data centers that do not report their water usage.
He is aware of Greg Abbott's order to sanction Texas data centers that do not report their water consumption and legal consequences.
Gov. Greg Abbott wants Texas data centers penalized for failing to respond to water use inquiry
AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott directed state water regulators to penalize data centers that failed to respond to a recent inquiry into their water usage. More than 70% of data centers in Texas broke the law by failing to…
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