Permitting reform and data center delays are now empirically related through state-level alternatives: with SPEED Act dead, project-level delays are mediated by state PUCs and tax-abatement boards rather than federal NEPA. Post 054 documents the shift.
Two Texas actions in this window reframed the data center buildout from a question of speed to a question of cost. ERCOT adopted the rule that gates large-load interconnection. The governor then ordered regulators to make data centers fully fund their own infrastructure and to cut residential transmission costs. The new constraint is the politics of who pays.
The AI power buildout has moved from forecast to order book. The richest companies in the world are prepared to spend almost without limit. They have discovered that money cannot manufacture time.
Permitting reform and data center delays are now empirically related through state-level alternatives: with SPEED Act dead, project-level delays are mediated by state PUCs and tax-abatement boards rather than federal NEPA. Post 054 documents the shift.
Two Texas actions in this window reframed the data center buildout from a question of speed to a question of cost. ERCOT adopted the rule that gates large-load interconnection. The governor then ordered regulators to make data centers fully fund their own infrastructure and to cut residential transmission costs. The new constraint is the politics of who pays.
The AI power buildout has moved from forecast to order book. The richest companies in the world are prepared to spend almost without limit. They have discovered that money cannot manufacture time.