Texas elects a governor who promised to pause data center approvals

Gina Hinojosa defeated Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after pledging to pause data center approvals in a state that holds roughly a quarter of planned U.S. data center capacity.

Hinojosa has signaled she would go further than Abbott, extending the pause to all data center approvals until the legislature passes new rules, Commercial Observer reported. Abbott, a Republican, had already paused data center interconnections pending an audit of hundreds of projects in the grid queue. He also halted environmental permits for data center projects statewide.

For developers, lenders and allocators underwriting Texas sites, the diligence line moves from land and offtake to the permits already in hand. A campus holding an interconnection approval and an environmental permit is a different asset from one with land, an interested customer and a queue position a governor has promised to freeze.

The politics broadened on Nov. 3. Ohio elected Amy Acton, who supports a moratorium, and Georgia elected Keisha Lance Bottoms, who made developer accountability central to her campaign, Commercial Observer reported. Voters in at least 10 states backed restrictions or rejected data center projects outright.

BMI expects state and local intervention rather than a national moratorium, with 2027 construction largely locked in, as Private Real Estate Daily previously reported. That reading suggests near-term risk falls on approvals for later projects rather than on capacity already under construction.

ERCOT has set a December deadline for its data center queue audit, as Private Real Estate Daily previously reported. The audit will separate queued capacity from real demand in the state. Projects that clear it still face a governor-elect who campaigned on stopping new approvals.