2-minute brief · updated Sept. 2, 2026

Pacifico Cedar Creek

Pacifico proposes a massive Cedar Creek data center; its pending air application lists 48 gas turbines totaling 1,326 megawatts of maximum nominal output.

The proposed site is already surrounded by homes, schools, childcare, farms and community roads. This is not an appropriate location for industrial-scale development.

Help in under 2 minutes ↓ See the evidence ↗

Real thermal drone footage · Not a rendering

What can rows of on-site gas turbines look like in operation?

Floodlight News recorded this January 2026 thermal drone view above xAI’s gas-turbine plant in Southaven, Mississippi. It shows rows of hot stacks and exhaust plumes serving one data-center complex.

This is not Pacifico and it is not a prediction of Cedar Creek. It is a real-world example that helps residents understand the heat, movement and collective scale that ordinary daytime footage can hide. Thermal imagery does not measure pollutant concentrations.

See the full visual evidence ↗ How Floodlight recorded it ↗

Animated thermal drone footage looking down on a gas-turbine yard with hot exhaust plumes rising from rows of turbines — **Credit: Floodlight News.** Thermal drone footage of xAI’s Southaven, Mississippi, gas-turbine plant, recorded January 2026.

The project at a glance

Four numbers explain the scale.

These are not estimates of a typical data center. They come from Pacifico’s filings and Lost Pines Watch’s current public-record and mapping analysis.

1,326 MW Maximum nominal output stated in the air application The application lists 48 turbines across six model families; Appendix A’s per-model ratings total 1,325.76 MW. In a later relayed response, Pacifico called its earlier JETI figures out of date and described approximately 1,100 MW of nameplate generation and 770 MW delivered to the customer.

22 Mapped schools, childcare and learning programs within 4 miles Four are within one mile. Earth Native Wilderness School is immediately adjacent, with its property sharing the project boundary.

5,701 Mapped residential sites within 3 miles 854 are within one mile.

25 Applicant-projected permanent jobs Bastrop County records confirm that the two Chapter 312 applications were withdrawn August 19. Pacifico says it also withdrew JETI J0049; no Comptroller withdrawal disposition was located in the record reviewed August 30. The project itself remains active.

Why residents are concerned

The issue is not technology. It is the location, the missing record and the permit process.

A newcomer should not need to study hundreds of pages to understand the core concern.

Wrong place

This is an existing rural community—not a remote, buffered heavy-industrial district. Homes, schools, childcare and wildfire-prone land already surround the development area.

See the map →

The application is public; major eligibility questions remain

The released 54-page filing identifies 48 turbines, six model families, modeled schedules, controls and applicant-calculated emissions. The public record still does not contain TCEQ’s final written eligibility determination, final stack terms, or a fully explained source-wide monitoring method.

Streamlined review with eligibility questions unresolved

Pacifico is pursuing an expedited Electric Generating Unit Standard Permit. Under 30 TAC §116.615(2), representations regarding maximum emission rates become registration conditions. TCEQ should explain in writing how the 48-turbine configuration qualifies and what monitoring and calculation methods make source-wide compliance with each annual limit reliably determinable.

Data centerServer campus

Earlier JETI IT load≈490 MW

Power facilityGas turbines

Air-app maximum nominal output1,326 MW

One campus · several approval tracks

Officials should review the whole buildout.

The data-center and power components appear under multiple entity names and approval records; the air application itself principally names Pacifico CCK Energy 1 LLC but later uses Pacifico Cedar Creek LLC, and the released records reviewed do not explain that discrepancy. Newer records show coordinated planning, shared drainage analysis, and plans that depict each other. The August air application identifies 48 turbines and states 1,326 MW of maximum nominal output. Pacifico says its earlier JETI figures are out of date and later described approximately 1,100 MW of nameplate generation and 770 MW delivered, but the released records reviewed do not reconcile those figures with the application’s 1,325.76-MW per-model total, the earlier 710-MW power figure, or the approximately 490-MW IT-load figure. The community deserves one cumulative review—not isolated decisions.

Review the supporting record ↗

Our position

Lost Pines Watch is not against responsible data centers or economic development.

We support modern, efficient projects located on appropriately buffered sites and developed with full disclosure, cumulative review, enforceable safeguards and honest compliance with the spirit of the law.

We oppose placing an industrial-scale gas power plant in an established Cedar Creek community before the complete air, water, fire, noise, traffic and cumulative-impact record is public and independently reviewed.

Pacifico should choose a better-buffered industrial site.

What to do now

Four actions matter now.

Use Permit 185019 / Project 413471 in every call and filing.

Open the full Action Center ↗

Call Gerdes and Schwertner right now

Do this first

TCEQ closed a one-day deficiency cycle and logged a team-leader or supervisor review milestone on September 2. Call Rep. Stan Gerdes at 512-321-3720 and Sen. Charles Schwertner at 512-463-0105. Ask both offices to contact TCEQ immediately, request a hold, demand the full final package and written PSD/ORC answers, and publish the agency’s response.

Open both call scripts ↗

Send TCEQ a pre-decision technical submission

Do this today

Reference Registration 185019 / Project 413471. Ask TCEQ not to approve the registration until it publishes the final package and resolves the emissions, enforceability, PSD-threshold and omitted-ORC questions.

Open the submission template ↗ Try TCEQ eComments ↗

Keep pressure on Cruz, Cornyn and Abbott

After the local calls

Ask Cruz and Cornyn to seek TCEQ and EPA Region 6 review, and ask Governor Abbott to press TCEQ publicly before final action. Demand written intervention and publication of every agency response.

Open all official contacts ↗

Keep pressing Bastrop County

Unfinished work

Commissioners Court passed a broader data-center resolution August 24, but the Pacifico air-permit amendment did not pass. Ask the County Judge—or any three commissioners—to call a properly posted special meeting and consider a formal recommendation that TCEQ not approve Registration 185019 until the record and whole-site analysis are complete.

Open the County request ↗

What is Lost Pines Watch?

Independent public-interest research for Bastrop County residents.

We read the filings, check the claims, publish the sources and correct the record when new information arrives.

Explore the evidence ↗ Open the map ↗

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Verified facts are tied to public records or clearly identified analysis.

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Applicant claims are labeled as claims—not repeated as established fact.

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Reasoned inferences are separated from proof and explained in plain language.

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Unknowns stay visible until the underlying record answers them.

Sources and verification links

TCEQ air-status page — search Project 413471 or Permit 185019 ↗ TCEQ — eComments system ↗ TCEQ — public participation guidance ↗ KVUE — Pacifico confirms Chapter 312 and JETI requests withdrawn ↗ Texas Comptroller — historical J0049 application page; no Comptroller withdrawal disposition was located in the record reviewed August 30 ↗ Representative Gerdes — August 21 TCEQ public-meeting request ↗ Bastrop County — official August 24 Commissioners Court agenda ↗ Office of the Governor — August 3 data-center audit directive ↗ Lost Pines Watch — what Abbott’s ERCOT directive does and does not cover ↗ U.S. EIA — 2024 Texas residential electricity use ↗ Lost Pines Watch — August 25 resident-action update and document findings ↗ Lost Pines Watch — August 27 urgent TCEQ and Aqua action update ↗ Lost Pines Watch — August 30 project-record and Aqua action update ↗ Aqua WSC — official September 1 agenda ↗ Lost Pines Watch — adopted groundwater resolution summary and verification note ↗ Lost Pines Watch — privacy-safe homes, schools and project map ↗ Lost Pines Watch — Evidence Explorer ↗