Trump criticizes Texas Governor's moratorium on data centers connecting to power grid

Our Take

Credit to CBS Austin for flagging a genuinely rare moment: a Republican governor asking hyperscalers to show their homework before they get a grid connection, and a Republican president publicly slapping that down. Whatever you think of Abbott's motives, the ask itself is not radical — expected electricity draw and water use are basic planning numbers any utility would want before committing capacity that ratepayers ultimately backstop. That the request is being framed as anti-growth tells you how normalized zero-transparency buildouts have become in this industry.

Texas has spent years selling itself as the easy button for data centers — deregulated power market, light-touch permitting, tax abatements for the asking. A pause that simply says 'tell us what you're going to use' is a low bar, and the pushback shows how much leverage these projects assume they have over state officials, not the other way around. When a president weighs in on a state grid-interconnection queue, that's not a states'-rights story anymore, it's an industry-muscle story.

Every one of these fights is downstream of decisions made with little public input — utility commissions, economic development boards, closed-door site deals. If you want to see what's already been approved near you and who signed off, check our facility map, and if you want to push for actual disclosure requirements before the next project breaks ground, our take-action page has next steps.