Hood County, TX

June 30, 2026

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Home-Rule Authority Faces Its First Real Test in San Marcos

Hill County rescinded its moratorium after a developer sued for $100 million, and Hood County backed off after Bettencourt asked the Attorney General whether counties can restrict data centers at all.

June 22, 2026

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ERCOT Studies Big Loads in Batches Now. The Queue Math Just Changed.

Hood County commissioners rejected a six-month moratorium after a state senator urged the Texas attorney general to intervene, while Raton, New Mexico stalled its own moratorium vote over legal exposure tied to its Atterix exclusivity agreement.

June 15, 2026

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Texas's June 23 Hearing Opens the Water Rulebook Before It Hardens

Hood County has eight proposals in that gap.

June 12, 2026

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Self-Generation, Disclosure, and a 2027 Deadline: Abbott Resets the Terms

Hood County denied plats and now faces litigation.

June 6, 2026

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Meitner Is the Template. 430 GW of Applications Are About to Find Out.

In Texas, Hood County faces eight projects totaling 7,600 acres, including the 2,100-acre, 3 GW Comanche Circle site, with commissioners told by a state lawmaker they lack moratorium authority; Hill County rescinded its ban under litigation pressure and replaced it with disclosure-based review requirements covering water, traffic, noise, and economic impact.

June 3, 2026

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Sequencing Beats Ambition: Power, Water, and Politics Each Bind Separately

In Texas, Hood County commissioners saw two moratorium attempts fail after state lawmakers signaled the county exceeded its authority, and now face two developer lawsuits.

June 2, 2026

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Ride-Through Becomes the New Phase I Discipline for Texas Sites

The vote lands the same week Hood County commissioners face eight proposed data centers totaling 7,600 acres without zoning authority to slow them, and as SoftBank commits €75 billion to 5 GW of French capacity, citing power availability as the decisive variable.

May 25, 2026

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Texas Ranks First on Power. A 5,500-Person Town Decides the Water.

Sailfish Development's 2,600-acre Comanche Circle project, consuming roughly a million gallons of water daily, has triggered two failed 3-2 moratorium votes by Hood County commissioners.

May 17, 2026

Hood and Hays counties have explored similar pauses.

May 1, 2026

Hood County and Granbury residents have filed litigation and packed meetings; Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller floated "Agriculture Freedom Zones" in January to redirect projects toward marginal land and brownfields.

April 6, 2026

Hood County residents, who previously fought a Bitcoin mining operation and blocked a data center near Dinosaur Valley State Park, drew an overflow crowd at January's annexation meeting.

March 28, 2026

Hood County's failed moratorium attempt, which state Sen. Paul Bettencourt called illegal, shows local governments are testing limits even where state preemption exists.

March 27, 2026

In Hood County, Republican commissioners postponed action on MARA Holdings data center proposals, citing doubts about the boom's permanence.

March 19, 2026

The moratorium push gains weight alongside a detailed look at the Sailfish datacenter campus proposed in neighboring Hood County, where community opposition already forced a water strategy reversal, and a statewide SXSW panel warning that Texas datacenter water consumption could hit 161 billion gallons annually by 2030.

March 11, 2026

The resolution, sent to Governor Abbott, Lt. Gov. Patrick, the PUCT, ERCOT, and the Texas Water Development Board, follows a public hearing that drew roughly 90 residents and reflects a pattern now visible across Hood County, Somervell County, and Jack County simultaneously.

March 6, 2026

early reports suggest Amazon is advancing an 18-building campus beside Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant in Somervell County and a 21-building, 1,265-acre Project Spectrum in Hood County powered by Vistra subsidiary Luminant.

March 1, 2026

Separately, in Hood County near DFW, commissioners twice rejected moratorium petitions from 60+ residents concerned about water and grid impacts from the 2,600-acre Comanche Circle Project.

February 25, 2026

Meanwhile, seven activists and roughly two dozen supporters rallied at the Capitol demanding Gov. Abbott call a special session, with Hood County residents and Rena Schroeder, a Republican Senate candidate in South Texas, framing data center expansion as a rural threat.

February 24, 2026

Water fights stretching from Hood County to El Paso.

February 22, 2026

Hood County leaders rejected a construction pause after a state senator threatened legal action.

February 21, 2026

Hood County commissioners voted 3-2 to reject a temporary moratorium on datacenter development after state intervention.

February 15, 2026

In Hood County, commissioners killed what would have been Texas's first county-level data center moratorium by a 3-2 vote after state Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) sent a letter to Attorney General Ken Paxton arguing counties lack moratorium authority under HB 2559.

February 12, 2026

Hood County, Texas saw a proposed datacenter moratorium squashed by a state senator, signaling state-level actors are actively protecting development pipelines.

February 11, 2026

Hood County commissioners voted 3-2 to reject a datacenter moratorium after a state senator intervened to assert the county lacked legal authority to impose one.