The data center fight in Austin, Texas
As of September 27, 2026, Austin, Texas has a data center moratorium under consideration (action taken Aug 27, 2026).
Status is derived, not stored — a pause with a documented end date flips to Expired on its own — and the source is right next to the claim.
Status today
Council unanimously directed staff to draft Land Development Code rules for large-scale data centers (location, size, water, noise, heat, lighting) that could regulate or ban facilities above 75 MW, with the first ordinance due back by end of 2026. At least five members back a full ban on hyperscale sites. No moratorium is in effect
SourceNews
read 2026-09-05
An expiry date is the earliest a pause could have ended — extensions are common, so confirm with the clerk before citing it.
Recent news
37 stories tracked since 2026-08-12 across 22 outlets. 24× A community is pushing back on a nearby data center. 11× Local officials are moving to pause or block the project. Most recent: “Texas probes Austin-area data center on land once meant to be a park” (USA Today, 2026-09-19).
- Texas probes Austin-area data center on land once meant to be a park
- Jackie Venson to headline Austin anti-data center fundraiser
- ERCOT group meets in Austin to plan for AI, data center power demand on grid
- $1.2 billion data centers planned for tiny Texas boomtown outside of Austin
- ERCOT group meets in Austin to plan for AI, data center power demand on grid
- Austin’s former 3M campus set for data center following $1B transformation
- Austin’s former 3M campus set for data center following $1B transformation
- Short circuit: New Austin data center leaves council members with questions
- Austin, Texas, lacks data center rules as officials move to track big power users
- Austin, Texas, lacks data center rules as officials move to track big power users
- Data center or R&D campus? Northwest Austin neighbors seek answers about Project Cosmos
- Texas coalition holds Austin rally against data centers
+25 more on the story tracker.
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 37 headlines archived.
What to do next
- Questions to ask at the hearing — force specific answers onto the record.
- Estimate the impact — electricity, water, and rate pressure for any facility size in Texas.
- Model CBA clauses — copy-paste language communities have actually won.
- Texas briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts, and every fight in the state.
Nearby in Texas
- Texas (Abbott directive) (0 mi) — Enactedno fixed end — runs until a condition is met
- Hays County (23 mi) — Enactedexpires 2026-12-31
- San Marcos (29 mi) — Enactedno end date — permanent
- Milam County (61 mi) — Enactedterm not documented
- San Antonio (74 mi) — Rejectedterm not documented
- Austin County (91 mi) — Enactedterm not documented
- Hill County (126 mi) — Rescindedterm not documented
- Hood County (149 mi) — Rejectedterm not documented
All 23 tracked actions in Texas are on the state page.
As of August 2026 · changes weekly — re-check before citing
Illustrative rather than exhaustive — dozens of localities churn weekly, and this tracks the ones we have read a source for. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to the ordinance, the enacting body's own page, or a datable report of the vote, and were read on that date. Rows marked *unverified* came from bulk compilation and have not been checked against a primary source — the locality, the year, and the status may all be off. Verify one of those with the town clerk before citing it as precedent. **Expiry is derived, not asserted.** A row with a documented end date flips to *Expired* on its own once that date passes. A time-limited moratorium whose start date was never documented keeps showing as enacted — that is a known gap, not a claim that it is still in force. Moratoriums are also routinely extended, so an expiry date is the earliest it could have ended, not proof that it did.
Part of the U.S. data center moratorium tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0.