Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered a temporary halt to approvals for new data centers seeking to connect to the state's electric grid, directing regulators to complete a comprehensive audit before projects can move forward. In a letter to the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), Abbott ordered an audit of data centers currently in ERCOT's interconnection queue. Developers must now "prove" details such as expected electricity and water use, tax incentives, cooling operations, ownership, and efforts to reduce impacts on local communities before receiving grid approval. Abbott said projects failing the state's "comprehensive verification and audit" should be denied connection to the Texas grid, adding "Texans must come first." The move comes as Texas, where Elon Musk has encouraged businesses to relocate and where Tesla moved its headquarters, faces scrutiny over rapid data center expansion. In a November 2025 post on X, Musk wrote "Texans come first. I’m directing state agencies and universities to freeze new H-1B visa petitions." According to ERCOT, more than 1,800 projects are waiting for grid connections, representing over 474 gigawatts of electricity demand, more than five times the state's record peak demand. Abbott said approximately 90% of those new power requests come from data center projects. The audit was prompted in part by low participation in a recent PUCT survey; during a June hearing, Rep. Brad Buckley said of the 377 companies