🇺🇸The Texxan

Hey Texas, if a data center or a giant transmission line is showing up near you, this is the conversation that you will want to be certain you participate in. This morning the Public Utility Commission of Texas posted an update in Project 58317. PUCT is a state agency. It regulates electric utilities across Texas. ERCOT is one of the grids in this state, but not the only one. If you live here, this file is about your bill, your water, your land, and what gets built next door to your home. Here’s the short version of what’s going on. PUCT just filed a new roadmap for the large-load rules coming out of Senate Bill 6. Some of those rules are already adopted. They’re now drafting a standard interconnection agreement; basically the contract data centers will sign to hook up and the terms for who pays. At the same time, Governor Abbott’s audit is still running. The first official write-up is being aimed at December. That’s the date to beat. The Governor has also told other agencies to lock arms on this: Data centers are supposed to pay for their own electric infrastructure, not pass it to households. Projects in the queue are supposed to be checked: power, water, ownership, tax breaks, impact on neighbors. On Sept. 14 he told the Texas Water Development Board to enforce water-use reporting and work the water side of the audit. Yesterday he told TCEQ to stop issuing data-center permits until those audits are done. Those letters are already in this docket. Your comment can sit right next to them if you follow the steps listed in this post. Here’s the part that should bother you. As of today there are 69 filings in 58317. Since the August audit started, only about 40 to 45 public comments have actually been filed. Meanwhile a lot more people are saying they oppose these projects at town halls, in group chats, and in the comments. Talking about it online feels like doing something. It isn’t the official record. If it isn’t filed, the agency can move on like you never spoke. This is how regular people talk to their government. Not a petition that disappears. Not a rant that only your friends see. A short letter in the docket that staff and commissioners have to keep. It takes a few minutes: Write what you know. Your name, your city or county, the project near you, and what you’ve seen; higher bills, water worries, a substation, a 765 kV route, trucks, noise, whatever is real for you. Save it as a PDF. Don’t put account numbers or other private details in it. These filings are public. Go to interchange.puc.texas.gov/fi… Hit Begin, check the box, and type Control Number 58317 Put in your contact info. Filing Party is just your name. Filing Type: Comments Description can be simple: Public comments on data centers, 765 kV, and the Governor’s audit Upload the PDF and submit. Keep the confirmation email. You can read everything already filed by searching 58317 on the Interchange. If you live in Texas and this is in your backyard, or you just don’t want households paying for someone else’s megawatts: FILE IT . Then send this to one neighbor who has been loud online and quiet on paper. December is when the first audit packet comes together. Get your name in the file before that. Do you really want your government to be able to say they gave you a chance to participate and only 40 people did? Or to say that the internet was all bots that were concerned and not real people because real people did not show up to the conversation? Have you submitted your concerns to the Docket? If not... what are you waiting for? December, that is your deadline. ⏰️