Gina Hinojosa’s Texas Win Puts Data Center Policy in Focus

Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, bringing her proposed pause on new data-center projects into focus for companies tied to Texas infrastructure expansion.

Hinojosa has called for a moratorium on new projects until protections are established for electricity supplies, water resources and local communities.

Texas’ permitting debate predates the election. Before the election, Abbott ordered TCEQ to pause data-center permitting while ERCOT conducted an audit, a separate permitting action.

By June, ERCOT was tracking more than 438,000 megawatts of large-load requests, nearly 89% of which were tied to data centers. Its batch-review process covers qualifying projects of at least 75 megawatts, assessing groups of requests, allocating available grid capacity and identifying needed transmission upgrades.