Fort Worth officials decided to pull their plans to provide an update Tuesday on regulations and a potential pause on data centers after Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state regulators to audit the supercomputer hubs using various criteria before they can move forward.
Fort Worth staffers are “taking a step back” to understand how Abbott’s orders impact the city and proposed data centers in the area, Assistant City Manager Jesica McEachern said at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
“Because if a project can’t get approval to connect to the grid, we don’t know really then what that timing looks like to move forward,” McEachern said in reference to proposed data centers.
Council members were set to receive a presentation on Tuesday from McEachern on data center regulations and what the process of implementing a moratorium would require, city documents show.
City staffers are in the process of obtaining more information on how the statewide pause applies to projects that have already been approved and which projects would be subject to an audit, McEachern added.
On Monday, Abbott ordered the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to enforce a standstill on data centers until audits can be conducted.
The audits are to include information on a data center’s tax exemptions, power usage and generation, water use and cooling methods, ownership and how operators will mitigate impacts to local communities, according to a news release.
Failure to comply with those requirements will deny data centers connection to the electric grid, which encompasses 90% of the state, the release states.
Monday’s order follows an earlier directive in June, when Abbott directed regulators to require data centers to fully fund the costs of their power infrastructure and take other steps to ensure utility bills for residents are not impacted.
In place of a presentation on data center regulations and a moratorium process, McEachern briefed council members on the number of public meetings Fort Worth has hosted so far regarding the tech hubs.
That includes the July 8 zoning commission meeting, when commissioners voted 7-4 for the denial of the city’s proposed zoning regulations on data centers.
The city’s public meetings have been frequented by residents, citing concerns about how data centers can affect local water supplies, the power grid, air quality and quality of life.
With the zoning commission’s recommendation, council members were originally set to vote on those regulations at an Aug. 11 meeting, along with other standards on noise, water requirements and business incentives.
Instead, the council will vote on whether to enforce a moratorium. This comes after a majority of Fort Worth council members voiced their support for a moratorium in a letter dated July 9.
Nicole Lopez is the environment reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at nicole.lopez@fortworthreport.org.
The Report’s environment coverage is supported by the Marilyn Brachman Hoffman Foundation.
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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
