Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Disclosure Is Coming. Developers Tracking Water Now Won't Break Stride.

Federal disclosure is coming for data center water and power use, and the Texas developers already metering both will pass an audit the rest of the industry is about to fail. Hill County's moratorium and Red Oak's 800-acre rezoning fight show the local pressure that turns federal reporting into state mandates if early permitting doesn't show its work.

Today's Lead

Congress is now the venue where data center policy gets written, and Rep. Chip Roy's POWER Act puts Texas water and grid-cost disclosure squarely on the federal table. The bill requires DOE to track water and electricity consumption at AI data centers over 100 MW that qualify for accelerated federal permitting under Executive Order 14318, distinguishing closed-loop from open-loop cooling and disclosing who pays interconnection costs.

Roy's a Central Texas Republican and he's not calling for a moratorium. He's calling for receipts. Developers already tracking these metrics internally won't break stride; those who aren't will be answering harder questions inside 24 months.

[1]·[2]·[3]

Politics

Federal lanes diverge, and Texas sits in the middle

Roy's POWER Act is the constructive end of the federal spectrum: disclosure, not prohibition. At the other end, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are pushing a moratorium on new AI data centers, while Sens. Josh Hawley and Richard Blumenthal want consumer rate protection. House Energy Subcommittee Chairman Robert Latta frames it as a generation and transmission buildout problem. The Congressional Research Service found in May little evidence data centers are moving rates nationwide yet, a short-window finding the Data Center Coalition is leaning into.

Pennsylvania shows the state-level version of the same fracture: four House bills passed with bipartisan support, but Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman is holding for a "holistic" framework. Risk: developers who wait for the rules to settle will find them written by people who didn't ask. Engage now or inherit the framework.

[3]·[4]·[5]

Water

Texas drought meets the disclosure regime

University of Texas at Austin research projects data centers could consume up to 9% of Texas's water supply by 2040, against roughly 1% today. Red Oak rezoned 800 acres for a data center project this month over local opposition; days later, Hill County imposed a moratorium on data center projects entirely. A Labrynth ranking puts Texas first in overall readiness but flags water availability and permitting as the weakest scores.

Illinois shows where unaddressed water concerns travel. After Sangamon County approved a $500 million CyrusOne facility 17-10, opposition didn't stop, it routed into the state POWER Act with two dozen sponsors mandating water impact permits and cooling efficiency standards. Risk: water disclosure made early in county permitting is what keeps a project from becoming the pilot that inspires a statewide rule.

[2]·[6]·[7]

Power

Anchor tenants are buying the stack, not the kilowatt-hour

Meta and Enbridge announced a $1.2 billion, 365 MW solar plus 200 MW/1,600 MWh storage project in Wyoming under that state's Large Power Contract Service tariff, which shields residential ratepayers from large-load impacts. Enbridge already operates three Texas projects for Meta totaling roughly 1 GW: Clear Fork Solar (600 MW), Easter Wind (152 MW), and Cone Wind (300 MW). TotalEnergies signed a 15-year, 1.5 TWh PPA with Google in Ohio while sitting on a 4 GW ERCOT portfolio. SB Energy filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO on May 20, anchored by the 1.2 GW Stargate campus in Milam County and a 10 GW Ohio buildout (9.2 GW gas).

On the engineering side, ON.energy reports roughly 3 GW of AI-grade UPS deployed or under construction, and Dimaag.ai has presented an 800 VDC architecture to ERCOT. Risk: anchor tenants and integrated power developers are sequencing generation, storage, and interconnection years ahead of go-live. Texas developers without a procurement order locked behind a signed tenant are bidding against counterparties who already own the stack.

[8]·[9]·[10]

Sources we cited

10 articles across 10 publishers · 164 reviewed today

[1]Ksst Radio
Chip Roy Advances Legislation To Monitor Data Center Resource Usage
May 25, 2026·May 25, 2026 – WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Texas congressman is pushing for new federal oversight of the rapidly expanding data center industry, in…
[2]Yahoo
Roy files legislation to track data center water, power use
May 22, 2026·Rep. Chip Roy filed legislation Friday that would require the Department of Energy to release annual reports on water and energy consumption…
[3]Missoula Current
Data center battles started in the states. Now it’s at Congress
May 25, 2026·WASHINGTON (Stateline) — Higher electric rates? Massive data centers looming over neighborhoods? Ugly political fights over what to do about…
[4]The Morning Call
What’s next for data centers in Pa.? State lawmakers are split on how to regulate them.
May 26, 2026·Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to…
[5]lockhaven.com
Data center battles started in the states; now it’s Congress under siege | News, Sports, Jobs - The Express
May 26, 2026·Community members protest ahead of a special Box Elder County Commission meeting to discuss the Stratos project, a massive data center propo…
[6]The Daily Yonder
As Illinois Lawmakers Debate POWER Act, Concerns about Data Centers Spill Into Rural Communities
May 26, 2026·This story was produced with support from the Lumpkin Family Foundation. The Lumpkin Family Foundation supports people working together to b…
[7]ZME Science
Proposed World's Largest AI Data Center in Utah May Dump 23 Atomic Bombs Worth of Heat Each Day
May 25, 2026·In a dry valley north of the Great Salt Lake, Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank fame wants to build an AI data center covering more land than many…
[8]ESG Today
Enbridge to Develop $1.2 Billion Solar & Storage Project to Power Meta Data Centers
May 25, 2026·Kenny Fisher May 25, 2026 Canada-based energy infrastructure company Enbridge announced a new $…
[9]TotalEnergies.com
United States: TotalEnergies to Supply Renewable Power to Google's Data Centers for 15 Years
Nov 12, 2025·Paris, November 12th, 2025 – TotalEnergies and Google have signed a 15-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to supply Google with a total vol…
[10]TradingKey
SoftBank-Backed SB Energy Nears US IPO: What Investors Need to Know
May 26, 2026·SB Energy Corp., a SoftBank-backed digital infrastructure company, has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement for a U.S. IP…

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