On September 21, Greg Abbott sent a letter to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state agency that hands out pollution and construction permits. He ordered it "to halt all permits sought by data centers," and added that "No other state agency shall move forward with regulatory approvals related to data centers" until the state finished reviewing how much water and power they use.
Texans who live next to these projects were told there was a freeze. It turns out the paperwork kept moving.
What the watchdogs found
Two watchdog groups, FracTracker Alliance and Public Citizen, went through the agency's own records. They found 35 permitting actions for data center projects in the weeks after Abbott's order, Inside Climate News reported:
- 14 applications fast-tracked or handed to engineers for review
- 11 stormwater approvals — the permits a big construction site needs to clear land, grade and dig
- 7 certified pollution estimates
- 3 public notices
The first actions came on September 22 — the day after Abbott's order. That day, the agency mailed notices of preliminary approval to three major projects: NRG's Prairie Energy Center, VoltaGrid's ABI-1 power plant, and the Nexus self-powered data center in Hubbard, in Hill County. Stormwater approvals went to projects including Crusoe's data center campus in Abilene, the Caldwell Valley Technology Park, and EdgeConneX's Cedar Creek campus.
"The TCEQ's own data indicates that it's business as usual for data centers," said Kathryn Guerra of Public Citizen, according to the Texas Tribune. "Affected communities were promised a freeze, and instead what they're getting is another reason to distrust the TCEQ."
"These actions do not signal an agency trying to pause," the groups wrote.
"No permits have been approved"
Abbott's office had an answer ready. His press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, said the pause covered approving permits, not processing them. "No permits have been approved," he said.
That's not what happened with the stormwater permits. Public Citizen identified at least six new stormwater construction permits tied to data centers that were approved after Abbott's directive. And then, the day after the watchdogs went public, the agency's spokesman said those stormwater permits had been suspended.
You can't suspend a permit that was never approved.
"What exactly did you pause?"
The people living next to these sites already had their answer. Linda Polley lives in Hill County, near the Nexus project. She described heavy construction traffic and dust, and had a question for the governor: "What exactly did you pause?"
Near the Stargate data center in Abilene, resident Riley Rodriquez said at Public Citizen's news conference that neighbors have "had enough" and want "real policy."
A pause timed for an election
We've been following this "pause" since Abbott announced it in the middle of his reelection campaign.
Abbott spent years courting data centers. Then, in August of an election year, he announced a crackdown — and rural Republicans called it "smoke and mirrors". The state audit he ordered to answer Texans' questions won't report until December 10, 37 days after they vote. And while he was talking tough, the industry's donors were giving him money: about $9 million since July 2025, with his biggest month coming right after the "crackdown".
Now the record shows the freeze didn't freeze, either.
What the records show
Greg Abbott ordered the Texas environmental agency on September 21 to "halt all permits sought by data centers." Starting the next day, the agency took 35 permitting actions for data center projects, including 11 stormwater approvals, according to FracTracker Alliance and Public Citizen. Abbott's office said "no permits have been approved" — but after the report came out, the agency said it had suspended stormwater permits it had approved for data centers after his order.
