Monday, September 21, 2026

Vegas Won't Sign the $6.4M ERCOT Deal After Lt. Gov. Patrick's Call

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick pressed ERCOT to drop Pablo Vegas's extension after board materials showed earned 2027 pay as high as $6.4M. Vegas told the Texas Tribune he won't sign, and the boards didn't rescind the vote.

Today's Lead

ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas will not execute a newly approved six-year contract extension after Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick publicly pressed the board to reverse course. ERCOT's board and the Public Utility Commission had approved the deal Tuesday. Board materials showed potential earned compensation as high as $6.4M in 2027, and a later ERCOT document put the maximum paid in 2027 at $4.1M.

Patrick, citing statewide rates up 40% since 2020 (11.50¢ to 16.11¢ per kWh), said he called ERCOT board chair Bill Flores and PUCT Chairman Thomas Gleeson and that both complied. Vegas told the Texas Tribune the boards didn't formally rescind the approval. After a closed session, Flores said the board wouldn't sign that day. He didn't give a reason.

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NATIONAL CONTEXT

Eversource has fielded more than 50 interconnection study requests since 2022 across southern New England, with combined demand under study above 1,000 MW and a high end near 5,000 MW; Governor Ned Lamont has said he won’t accept hyperscale projects unless developers build enough onsite generation to serve them, and no Connecticut project has cleared local land-use boards or signed a connection agreement yet.

In Aurora, Colorado, Vantage’s Trident campus targets roughly 500 MW full buildout (334 MW planned IT across two buildings on 143 acres) on industrial zoning that can clear by staff without a public hearing; state officials have urged a community hearing before the health-department construction permit. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has said he would sign a statewide moratorium if a bill reaches him in 2027. The U.S. House passed the Ratepayer Protection Act 417-3, non-binding guidance that developers absorb upgrade costs.

[3]·[4]·[5]·[6]·[7]

Politics

NEW: Sen. Parker's Jan. 12 bill meets Hood County and the jobs gap

State Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, said he will file data center transparency legislation when the Texas Legislature convenes Jan. 12, drawing on Barnett Shale-era incentives rather than mandates and stressing public engagement over tone-deaf entry. Texas still can’t independently count datacenter jobs: the Texas Workforce Commission’s computing-infrastructure bucket can’t isolate roles, wages, or permanence, and ERCOT confirmed it doesn’t collect project-level employment for large loads under Governor Greg Abbott’s August review directive.

Hood County commissioners rejected an AWS pitch Commissioner Dave Eagle called “razzle dazzle” with few build specifics and an ask of up to 90% property tax abatement over 30 years; AWS said it ultimately chose not to build there and moved the abatement path to the next county. At SMU’s Hunt Institute Energy Night, Compass Datacenters CEO Chris Crosby and Data Center Coalition president Josh Levi framed shale’s community-trust failures as the risk to avoid; Compass already added dedicated government-relations staff and is the largest taxpayer in Red Oak. Put the wage numbers and the abatement terms in the first county meeting, before State Sen. Tan Parker's Jan. 12 filing.

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Power

NEW: Congestion is a balance-sheet line; private generation is the bypass

U.S. grid congestion hit a record $17B in 2025, nearly 50% above 2024; ERCOT took $2.5B, second only to PJM, with Panhandle export limits and Permian import constraints (Permian costs up 27% year-over-year) punishing load that can't reach cheap generation. ERCOT's December 2025 Strategic Transmission Expansion Plan, including 765-kV buildout, is the multi-year answer, not an overnight cure.

Site selectors are already treating High Plains land-plus-organized-market seats as industrial plants: Texas ranks second nationally with 537 data center buildings, and a 100 MW hall still runs $12 million to $18 million per MW before IT gear. Bloom Energy’s $25 billion Brookfield project-finance package is aimed at on-site solid-oxide capacity that skips the transmission queue; CEO KR Sridhar said every major U.S. hyperscaler has validated the kit for AI facilities. Count the carrying cost between interconnection and energization in the model. Bloom's on-site package skips the queue while ERCOT's 765-kV plan is still years out.

[2]·[12]·[13]

Water

NEW: Backup-fuel spill lands as counties demand proof on resource deals

A computer glitch at Equinix’s New Jersey site released 5,500 gallons of backup diesel into a Hackensack River tributary; New Jersey DEP reports no wildlife harm so far, and the incident is under investigation.

In Texas, tax-abatement files still offer the only partial window into promised local returns (Dallas County’s 2019 Equinix deal required 25 full-time jobs; a January 2025 certification showed 52 employees at about $91,220 average pay), while Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins argues future abatements should force routine public employment reporting. High Plains site letters still turn on open acreage, water access, and a seat in an organized power market for 250 MW-class campuses. Check the water offset, the spill response, and the jobs the abatement file actually shows before the incentive vote.

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Sources we cited

14 articles across 13 publishers · 475 reviewed today

[1]Texas Tribune
After backlash, power grid officials back away from agreement to give ERCOT CEO millions in additional bonuses
Sep 15, 2026·The president and CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas secured approval for a contract Tuesday that documents suggested could pa…
[2]Latitude Media
Grid congestion cost the US a record $17 billion last year
Sep 17, 2026·A new report from Grid Strategies quantifies the costs as grid capacity fails to keep up with load growth. The post Grid congestion cost the…
[3]hartfordbusiness.com
Developers explore hyperscale data centers in CT despite pushback
Sep 21, 2026·No hyperscale data center has been formally proposed in Connecticut. None has come before a local land-use board, and none has signed an agr…
[4]Colorado Newsline
Colorado’s largest data center could rise next to homes — without a public hearing
Sep 21, 2026·Proposal comes amid widespread community pushback against power-hungry facilities that support AI Construction on a data center expansion a…
[5]UA.NEWS
Maryland governor ready to sign data center moratorium — The Hill
Sep 17, 2026·Maryland Governor Wes Moore said he would sign a bill imposing a statewide moratorium on the development of new data centers if it reaches h…
[6]TD World
House Passes Bipartisan Legislation on Data Center Rate Hikes
Sep 18, 2026·The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation Friday intended to shield ratepayers from increasi…
[7]The Mighty 790 KFGO
Virginia tightens data center restrictions amid political backlash
Sep 18, 2026·NEW YORK, Sept 18 (Reuters) – The US state of Virginia is tightening permitting, commercial and environmental controls on data centers as p…
[8]Fort Worth Report
Tarrant lawmaker plans Texas data center transparency legislation
Sep 18, 2026·State Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, grew up in Fort Worth. He has tackled hot topics like gas drilling and AI in the past.
[9]Dallas News
Texas can’t independently count data center jobs
Sep 16, 2026·Compass Datacenters operators Michale Carvalho and Crystal Conroy walk through an unfinished data hall in Red Oak on Aug. 27, 2026. The data…
[10]CBS News
Data center developer tried to "razzle dazzle" while sharing few specifics, Texas county commissioner says
Sep 20, 2026·September 20, 2026 / 7:13 PM EDT / CBS News A data center project came to the table in a Texas county a year ago, promising a b…
[11]Dallas News
Texas data center leaders say shale boom offers lessons for industry
Sep 18, 2026·Chris Crosby, CEO of Compass Datacenters, speaks on a panel during Energy Night at Southern Methodist University in Dallas on Sept. 17, 2026…
[12]High Plains Journal
Farming for data—land, energy, output
Sep 18, 2026·What is a data center? It is not a grain bin with better Wi-Fi, and it is not a factory that hires the county. It is a plant that turns land…
[13]The Globe and Mail
Bloom Energy Is Riding the Data Center Boom to a $25 Billion Backlog. Plug Power Is Passing on It. Here's Why.
Sep 19, 2026·Bloom Energy secured a $25 billion financing deal with Brookfield to build AI-related power infrastructure for data centers. Plug Power is …
[14]Factor This
Not the worst time for an AI data center to spill 5,500 gallons of backup fuel into a tributary | Factor This Brief
Sep 21, 2026·While the prospectors wielding the sharpest pickaxes on the frontier of artificial intelligence consider calling a team timeout to debate th…

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