The data center fight in Milam County, Texas
As of September 27, 2026, Milam County, Texas has a data center moratorium in force (action taken June 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
Resolution calling for stricter statewide standards on data centers: public disclosure of electrical demand, water consumption, cooling technologies, and infrastructure impact. Non-binding.
SourceNews
read 2026-09-11
An expiry date is the earliest a pause could have ended — extensions are common, so confirm with the clerk before citing it.
The project on the table
OpenAI Stargate Milam —
Operator: Softbank · Owner: Softbank · Tenant: OpenAI
Part of Stargate.
Next: Already operating — the leverage now is enforcement: noise and water conditions, tax revenue tracking, and any expansion filing, which reopens the record.
Latest in the record
- 2026-08-12 — SB Energy committed to comply with Governor Abbott's data center transparency and accountability standards for Texas, alongside Core Scientific and Vantage Data Centers. · source
- 2026-08-07 — KCENTV reported that rock trucks driving through downtown Temple were traced to the $470 million OpenAI data center construction project in Milam County. · source
- 2026-06-16 — Austin Business Journal reported that one of the world's largest companies (linked to SoftBank) purchased approximately 4,700 acres in Milam County in a detail-sparse land transaction. · source
- 2026-05-12 — The Texas Tribune reported that a Texas county paused data center construction in rural areas for one year, in response to rapid data center expansion in the region. · source
- 2026-04-22 — Data Center Dynamics reported that OpenAI Stargate's Milam County 'Freebird' data center first phase would span 548,950 square feet. · source
- 2026-04-17 — MySA reported that data center developers made nearly $500 million in moves in Central Texas towns amid water concerns in the Milam County area. · source
Full dated timeline on the project tracker.
Source. Read 2026-08-14.
Recent news
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 1 headline 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) (61 mi) — Enactedno fixed end — runs until a condition is met
- Austin (61 mi) — Proposedterm not documented
- Austin County (71 mi) — Enactedterm not documented
- Hays County (84 mi) — Enactedexpires 2026-12-31
- San Marcos (87 mi) — Enactedno end date — permanent
- Hill County (88 mi) — Rescindedterm not documented
- Athens (117 mi) — Enactedno end date — permanent
- Hood County (128 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.