How Texas built a four-agency enforcement machine against its data-center queue

Texas spent seven weeks turning data-center oversight into enforcement. On September 24, 2026, Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into hundreds of Texas data center developments that had not responded to the state water-use survey. It capped four official actions that began August 3, when Governor Greg Abbott ordered a comprehensive audit of every data center in ERCOT’s interconnection queue. That letter cited roughly 474 gigawatts of pending grid-connection requests — more than five times ERCOT’s record peak demand — with about 90 percent tied to data centers. The releases name 18 counties but no specific company or project.

• DOE selects 31 SPARK grid projects across 26 states – The Office of Electricity’s $5.25 billion reconductoring program is expected to free over 23 GW of additional capacity on existing corridors.
• DTE ties 2.4 GW of load growth to two new gas plants – DTE Electric’s September 2026 IRP in Michigan Case U-22168 seeks CONs for a ~1,400 MW Livingston County CCGT by 2031 and a ~700 MW Monroe County CCGT by 2032.
• PPL says Pennsylvania data-center agreements hit 25.2 GW – Signed load in PPL’s Pennsylvania territory rose to 25.2 GW, with 5 GW already under construction.