Texas data center permitting portal goes offline

Texas has taken its automated construction permit filing portal offline and suspended permits for 17 data center projects after watchdog groups found that approvals continued despite Governor Greg Abbott’s call for a pause in September.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) said it temporarily shut down the electronic filing application so staff could review submissions for connections to data centers. The action followed reporting by 404 Media on permits issued after the governor’s call.

By Wednesday, the portal displayed this message: "TCEQ’s electronic filing application used for automatic authorizations has been temporarily shut down to ensure all applications are reviewed by agency staff to determine if they are related to data centers."

Approvals continued after pause announcement

On Monday, FracTracker Alliance and Public Citizen published reports documenting more than two dozen permits issued to Texas data center projects. On Tuesday, STEERS, the construction application filing system operated by TCEQ, returned a 404 error.

"STEERS is a portal that TCEQ uses to rubber stamp construction approvals", Sam Law, a researcher at FracTracker Alliance told 404 Media. "It seems like they forgot about it and the portal has been quietly issuing approvals since the governor’s order for a pause, including for OpenAI and Amazon this Monday and Tuesday."

Before the portal went offline, 404 Media checked 17 permits associated with data center projects in TCEQ’s central registry. Their status had changed from "active" to "suspended".

Those permits cover stormwater construction, allowing construction companies to raise and level ground. That approval is a key step - and sometimes the final step - in the approval process for construction projects in Texas.

Concerns over suspended permits

"Now they’ve taken the unprecedented step of suspending 17 approvals and taking down the whole site as they switch to a more involved human review process", Law said. "The irony is not lost on me. When fighting the AI data centers build out, it’s nice to have a clear example of how some work is better left to humans."

Law said he contacted TCEQ but received no response. The commission also did not respond to 404 Media’s request for comment.

"I am very concerned that since contractors are accustomed to this automated approval process, they might not be aware of the suspension and continuing construction at some of the largest hyperscale facilities in Texas", Law said.

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