Hood County
3 projects on record · 1 moratorium or ban action
← Statewide map| Fort Spunky data center | Pacifico Energy | 100 | Denied | March 10, 2026 | 50 MW+ |
| Comanche Circle | Sailfish Investors | — | Stalled | Oct. 13, 2026 | 50 MW+ |
| Project Red and Project Yellow | — | — | Proposed | June 2026 | 50 MW+ |
Moratoriums and bans
- Feb. 10, 2026 Hood County: Moratorium (failed). A six-month pause on new industrial development including data centers failed 3-2; a second try failed by the same margin on Feb. 24 after a state senator questioned county authority. (The Texas Tribune, Feb. 10, 2026; CBS News Texas, Feb. 24, 2026)
Updates, newest first
- Oct. 13, 2026 Comanche Circle · Commissioners voted 3-1 to reject a settlement that would have shrunk the project to about 1,375 acres, then unanimously denied Sailfish's appeal on its on-site permits. (KERA (via Texas Public Radio), Oct. 13, 2026)
- June 9, 2026 Comanche Circle · Commissioners voted 3-1 to approve the concept plan without conditions, moving it to site development review. (KERA (via KWBU), June 10, 2026)
- June 2, 2026 Fort Spunky data center · The Texas Tribune reported that the county revoked the concept plan 3-2 and that Pacifico had sued, seeking at least $250,000. (The Texas Tribune, June 2, 2026)
- June 2, 2026 Project Red and Project Yellow · The Texas Tribune reported the county had delayed votes twice and required the developers to meet new rules first; a suit accused the county of illegal delay. (The Texas Tribune, June 2, 2026)
- March 10, 2026 Fort Spunky data center · Hood County commissioners reject the Fort Spunky concept plan, 3-2. (Texas Scorecard, March 10, 2026)
- Feb. 10, 2026 Hood County: Moratorium (failed) · A six-month pause on new industrial development including data centers failed 3-2; a second try failed by the same margin on Feb. 24 after a state senator questioned county authority. (The Texas Tribune, Feb. 10, 2026; CBS News Texas, Feb. 24, 2026)
- Jan. 13, 2026 Comanche Circle · Commissioners granted conditional approval to the concept plan and tabled a moratorium. (The Texas Tribune, June 2, 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 →