Insert cliched expressions of shock here.
The sweeping data center audit that Gov. Greg Abbott ordered earlier this month won’t be completed until late this year, potentially punting a politically volatile issue to after the November midterms.
The Public Utility Commission approved the timeline on Thursday as officials from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said they hope to complete the audit of hundreds of projects currently in the pipeline by December.
Under growing pressure from a brewing backlash to data centers, especially in rural parts of the state, Abbott earlier this month called on ERCOT and the PUC to audit roughly 300 projects before issuing any approvals. The governor, who is running for a record fourth term in office, said the state needed more information on the massive projects before moving forward.
The audit effectively paused ERCOT’s work on the first batch of large-load projects — known as “batch zero” — seeking approval to connect to the grid. Those projects were already months away from final approval. It is unclear how far back the audit will push the process.
See here for some background. There’s a reason why rural voters, at whom this idea was aimed, remain skeptical of Abbott and his motives. There’s also a reason why Gina Hinojosa and others have told Abbott to put his money where his mouth is and call a special session to address the issue directly. We all know why this was as far as he wanted to go.