Overview
- Testimony at a nearly 10-hour Texas House Natural Resources Committee hearing on Friday showed regulators received far fewer survey replies than expected, leaving major gaps in oversight.
- The Public Utility Commission reported responses from 28 companies representing 92 facilities, a small fraction of the state’s data centers and crypto‑mining sites tracked by the agency.
- The Texas Water Development Board said roughly 17% of surveyed data centers answered its 2025 water-use survey and described using commercial databases and “forensic accounting” estimates to fill missing data.
- Some operators, including Diode Ventures and Calypso, declined invitations to testify while larger firms such as Amazon, Google and Vantage did appear and answer questions at the hearing.
- Lawmakers signaled additional hearings and plans to make transparency, enforceable reporting, water‑efficiency standards and clearer utility cost‑allocation priorities for data centers central issues in the 2027 legislative session.