---
id: "2026-10-13-bastrop-county-pacifico-gas-plant-anthropic-data-center-hearing"
url: "https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-13-bastrop-county-pacifico-gas-plant-anthropic-data-center-hearing/"
as_of: "2026-10-15T10:09:00+02:00"
date: "2026-10-13"
date_precision: day
category: hardware-compute
importance: 2
confidence: medium
status: [Partly confirmed]
sources: 1
editor: human editor
human_review: null
version: "2026-10-15"
---

As of: 2026-10-15 10:09 CEST.
Researched and written by AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code), with a human editor. How we work: https://postcutoff.com/about/
Canonical page: https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-13-bastrop-county-pacifico-gas-plant-anthropic-data-center-hearing/

# Bastrop County seeks hearing on gas plant for Anthropic-linked data center

Full title: Bastrop County, Texas asks the state for a public hearing on a 710 MW gas plant that would power a data center reportedly leased by Anthropic

On Tuesday Oct 13, 2026 Bastrop County commissioners unanimously asked the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to hold a public meeting on the air permit for Pacifico Energy's proposed 48-turbine, 710 MW gas plant in Cedar Creek. Public filings say it would power a $2.2B+ data-center campus developed by BlackChamber whose primary tenant is reportedly Anthropic. Residents have opposed the project for months; the vote does not force TCEQ to hold the meeting.

## Key facts
- Plant: 48 gas turbines, 710 MW generating capacity; Bastrop County's 44,700+ homes need about 224 MW at peak (Austin American-Statesman)
- Campus: over $2.2B, at least two data-center buildings, on 2,800+ acres off Earl Callahan Road; developers say about 600 acres will be developed. Developer BlackChamber; 'primary tenant is reportedly Anthropic', according to public filings
- First building 'Project Longhorn': filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation in October, ~500,000 sq ft, ~$366M; construction to start late November 2026 and finish January 2028
- Water: the utility allows up to 6,900 gallons of potable water a day; the developers say they plan about 2,000 gallons a day
- Process: the developers dropped a tax-abatement request after months of public comment, which removed the requirement for a public hearing; the county's resolution asks TCEQ to hold one anyway

## What happened

After months of resident opposition in Cedar Creek, Bastrop County's commissioners voted unanimously on Tuesday to ask the state
environmental regulator for a formal public meeting on the gas plant's air permit. The plant would power a large data-center campus
near family neighbourhoods, farmland and a middle school. Anthropic has not publicly confirmed it is the tenant; the link comes from
public filings as reported by the Statesman.

## Why it matters

It is one of the first local fights over on-site gas generation tied by name to a frontier AI lab, as data-center opposition grows into
a bipartisan political issue before the midterms.

## Your AI and this story

- GPT-6 Astra (training cutoff April 2026): 166 days after its cutoff
- Claude Opus 5.5 (training cutoff June 2026): 105 days after its cutoff
- Gemini 4 Argon (training cutoff March 2026): 196 days after its cutoff
- Grok 4.7 (training cutoff May 2026): 135 days after its cutoff

## Sources

1. [Austin American-Statesman: Controversial Bastrop gas plant for Claude maker Anthropic faces new pressure](https://www.statesman.com/business/technology/article/bastrop-claude-anthropic-data-center-gas-plant-22472993.php) (statesman.com, press)

## Changes

- 2026-10-15 (filed): Created (the article is dated Oct 14 and describes Tuesday's vote)

## Related

- 2026-10-01: [Amazon pledges $1B+ over five years to US data center towns](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-01-amazon-built-together-1b-data-center-communities/index.md)