Hays County

Moratoriums and bans

1. June 23, 2026 Hays County: Pause on discretionary approvals. After tabling a moratorium in February, commissioners unanimously suspended discretionary approvals such as abatements for data centers and other water-heavy projects through year-end and created a water review board. (KUT 90.5, June 23, 2026; Spectrum News, May 19, 2026)
2. June 16, 2026 San Marcos: Ban. The council voted 4-3 to bar data centers from every zoning district; an April 21 version failed 3-4. (Community Impact, June 17, 2026)

Updates, newest first

1. June 23, 2026 Hays County: Pause on discretionary approvals · After tabling a moratorium in February, commissioners unanimously suspended discretionary approvals such as abatements for data centers and other water-heavy projects through year-end and created a water review board. (KUT 90.5, June 23, 2026; Spectrum News, May 19, 2026)
2. June 16, 2026 San Marcos: Ban · The council voted 4-3 to bar data centers from every zoning district; an April 21 version failed 3-4. (Community Impact, June 17, 2026)
3. Feb. 17, 2026 Highlander SM One data center · The San Marcos council denied a Preferred Scenario Map amendment and rezoning for the project. (Community Impact, June 17, 2026)

Statewide

SB 6 (89th Legislature, 2025) makes the PUCT set interconnection standards for loads of 75 MW or more in ERCOT, requiring site control, study fees, financial security, disclosure of duplicate requests and backup generation, and emergency curtailment of new large loads; effective June 20, 2025, with PUCT rules due by Dec. 31, 2026 (Projects 58479-58484, 58000). (POWER Magazine, Aug. 4, 2026; Foley & Lardner, March 31, 2026) PUCT draft large-load interconnection rule (published March 2026) would require $50,000 per MW in security, $100,000-$300,000 study fees, a $50,000-per-MW nonrefundable fee and full customer payment of direct interconnection costs; interconnection standards rulemaking (Project 58481) was still in scoping as of August 2026. (Foley & Lardner, March 31, 2026; POWER Magazine, Aug. 4, 2026) ERCOT batch study framework (NPRR1325/PGRR145), approved by the PUCT June 18, 2026, required $50,000 per MW of security by July 10 for 'Batch Zero', with results due April 2027; large-load requests totaled about 474 GW in June 2026, about 421 GW of it data centers. (POWER Magazine, Aug. 4, 2026) Gov. Abbott's Aug. 3, 2026 directive ordered the PUCT and ERCOT to audit every data center in the interconnection queue and deny grid access to projects that fail to disclose ownership, financial, water and community-impact information, which several outlets described as a de facto statewide pause. (POWER Magazine, Aug. 4, 2026; E&E News by POLITICO, Aug. 11, 2026) State sales and use tax exemption for qualifying data centers (Tax Code Secs. 151.359 and 151.3595; created by HB 1223, 83rd Legislature, 2013, expanded 2015); the Comptroller has certified 138 data centers, and estimates of cost run from about $3.2 billion for 2026-27 to $3.3 billion for 2028-29. (Public Citizen (testimony to Texas Senate Finance Committee), July 27, 2026; Texas Public Radio / The Texas Newsroom, July 28, 2026) Local property tax abatements under Tax Code Chapter 312 are the main county and city incentive; school-district value limits under Chapter 313 expired at the end of 2022 and were replaced by the JETI program (HB 5, 88th Legislature, 2023), which data center power projects such as Pacifico's Bastrop proposal have applied to. (Community Impact, Feb. 23, 2024; Community Impact, July 15, 2026; Haskell County Commissioners Court, Jan. 9, 2026) Texas data centers →