Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office said Thursday it had sent letters to 156 data center developments across more than 30 counties, pressing them to comply with state water use reporting rules.
Fox 7 Austin reports that Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office announced the mailing in a news release. The letters tell data centers to follow water use reporting requirements set by the Texas Water Development Board. State law requires data centers to respond to the board’s water use survey, but the office said many facilities haven’t complied.
Breitbart News previously reported that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) ordered a crackdown on data centers that ignore the requirement to report water usage:
“Data centers must share the duty to protect Texas water,” Abbott said. “The Texas Water Code requires a complete and accurate water use survey. I direct the Texas Water Development Board to use its enforcement authority to penalize past failures and to impose legal consequences for any future failure to comply.”
Since 2020, the TWDB has surveyed data centers and other industrial facilities every year, asking for monthly water use figures. State law requires facilities to respond or face a Class C misdemeanor, but the agency says it can’t actually prosecute anyone. It’s a non-regulatory body. That job falls to local officials, including district attorneys and law enforcement, agency officials said. TWDB staff told the Texas Tribune in July that they don’t even track how many fines, if any, have been issued.
“Data center developers must follow the law and respect the Texans and communities affected by their operations,” Paxton said in the release.
In September, Gov. Abbott halted environmental permits for data centers until an audit is completed:
The directive, issued Monday, tells the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to stop processing data center permits until the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) finishes auditing the backlog of data centers waiting for grid connections. TCEQ has to report back to the governor’s office on its compliance by Oct. 19.
It builds on an earlier order. In August, Abbott’s office had already directed the audits and put a moratorium on new data center grid approvals. Monday’s order extends that freeze to environmental permits, too, closing off another route developers had been using to keep projects moving.
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Read more at Fox 7 Austin here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.