Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Sid Miller Backs a Moratorium. Abbott Rewrites the Rules Instead.

Sid Miller wants a moratorium; Abbott is betting that bring-your-own-power and reuse-your-water rules beat a building ban, while New York, Indiana, and Maryland keep tightening. The developers who treat these pauses as comment periods, naming the customer and committing to third-party hydrology upfront, will watch the rules lift in their favor.

Today's Lead

Texas data center politics reached a turning point. Gov. Greg Abbott, who has championed data centers as an economic driver, told GOP convention delegates last week that incoming legislation would force data centers to "bring their own power, reuse their own water, and lower the cost of electricity for consumers and residents." He ordered state regulators to block cost-shifting to ratepayers for new electrical infrastructure and called on lawmakers to repeal data center sales tax exemptions.

That pivot lands as rural Republican support fractures. Sid Miller, the outgoing agriculture commissioner, broke ranks to endorse Democrat Clayton Tucker's call for a statewide moratorium at a packed Matagorda County event. The developers who secure independent power procurement and water reuse now will be building to where Texas policy is already headed.

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Politics

Rural backlash is now an electoral variable, and Texas isn't alone.

Tucker is running his entire agriculture commissioner campaign on the slogan "stop AI data centers," testing whether the issue scrambles partisan voting in rural Texas. Outside Texas, the moratorium wave is hardening: New York's legislature passed the nation's first statewide data center moratorium (20 MW threshold, sitting on Hochul's desk), Montgomery County, Maryland imposed a six-month pause, and Plymouth County, Iowa, Boone County, Indiana, and Spartanburg County, South Carolina all moved in mid-June. Indiana now counts twelve counties paused, with Marshall County converting to a permanent ban.

Here's the distinction that matters: most of these pauses are rule-writing windows, not rejections. Elrich explicitly rejected calling Montgomery's moratorium a ban. The risk for developers is treating a pause as a closed door rather than a comment period. The ones who shape the rules before the clock runs out will see moratoriums lift in their favor.

[1]·[2]·[3]·[4]·[5]

Power

The grid can't keep pace, so developers are bringing their own.

Reuters identified at least 57 off-grid natural gas plants proposed or under construction nationwide, totaling 73,000 MW, often with minimal public notice. Apollo Generating Station, serving Meta's Ohio campus, won approval in under three months. Behind-the-meter is scaling fast too: Bloom Energy's solid oxide fuel cells carry a 90-day deployment timeline, and AEP's unregulated subsidiary signed a $2.65 billion agreement, exercising its option for an additional 900 MW earlier this month. Meanwhile supply chains are buckling, with RapidRatings putting 20 percent of data center construction support firms at high bankruptcy risk.

The transparency gap is the exposure. Meta filed in Ohio through Liames LLC to obscure the end customer; that fast-track model created backlash. Texas hasn't featured prominently in this off-grid wave yet, which gives developers here the chance to name the customer upfront and run voluntary environmental review before opposition hardens.

[6]·[7]·[8]

Water

Amazon's Missouri model sets the offset benchmark.

Amazon committed $7+ million in community spending before breaking ground in Montgomery County, Missouri, and sized cooling so the campus uses water less than 7 percent annually, relying on outside-air cooling the rest of the time. The Arable Labs partnership targets a 100 million gallon annual regional groundwater reduction, and Amazon coordinated with Ameren Missouri so costs won't shift to existing ratepayers. Transparency metrics are coming nationally too: WUE disclosure is moving fast, with OpenAI facilities cited at more than a million gallons per day.

The catch is verification. Arable Labs' reduction is regional, not site-specific. Water disputes destroy projects faster than any other single factor, so developers replicating this model should stress-test assumptions with third-party hydrology and commit to transparent monitoring.

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Sources we cited

10 articles across 10 publishers · 306 reviewed today

[1]Houston Chronicle
Texas leaders are welcoming data centers. Could it cost them in the midterms?
Jun 17, 2026·The Democrat running for Texas agriculture commissioner won a boost from an unexpected source last week: The Republican he’s trying to repla…
[2]Bisnow
Data Center Moratorium On Gov. Hochul's Desk Puts Dozens Of Projects In Crosshairs
Jun 16, 2026·New York has $10B of data center projects in the works, set to be delivered by 2030. Much of that investment could be stopped dead in its tr…
[3]Maryland Matters
Elrich unveils six-month moratorium on Montgomery County data center permits
Jun 15, 2026·A server room in a data center. (Photo by Getty Images) Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich signed an executive order Friday that will …
[4]IndyStar
Boone County adopts 1-year data center moratorium
Jun 15, 2026·The Boone County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously June 15 to impose a yearlong moratorium on the development of new data centers whi…
[5]Post and Courier
Spartanburg County Council plans data center moratorium as new project looms
Jun 16, 2026·Christian spent six years in Myrtle Beach before moving to the Upstate. When he's not working, he's reading a book, making a mess in the kit…
[6]Finance & Commerce
Power plants built for data centers spark transparency concerns
Jun 16, 2026·By Valerie Volcovici, Reuters//June 16, 2026// A drone view shows construction underway on Meta's new data center in Middleton Township, Oh…
[7]TradingView
Bull of the Day: Bloom Energy (BE)
Jun 17, 2026·Bloom Energy (BE) has been a big winner in the AI datacenter buildout because they offer an immediate "BTM" (behind the meter) solution wher…
[8]Data Center Dynamics
Are US construction supply chains buckling under the weight of the AI revolution?
Jun 17, 2026·Data centers are rising everywhere. Can the building industry cope? Data centers are seeing unprecedented growth to meet heavy forecasted d…
[9]OilPrice.com
Amazon Unveils Multibillion-Dollar Missouri Data Center Investment
Jun 16, 2026·Click Here for 150+ Global Oil Prices Click Here for 150+ Global Oil Prices Click Here for 150+ Global Oil Prices Click Here for 150+ Glo…
[10]TechTarget
Regulation watch: The next year of AI data center transparency
Jun 16, 2026·The race to build AI infrastructure is ever-growing, but with that comes backlash, critique and protest. As public unease and anxiety aroun…

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