Rangers Ride into Kerr County Flood Deaths

Texas Rangers need to broaden the scope of their investigation to include Kerr County officials responsible for disaster planning/response.  Kerr County officials are zero for four regarding flash flooding.

One, they did not drill for the highest risk disaster facing their community.  

Two, they did not participate in state disaster preparations for potential flash flooding for that July 4th holiday.

Three, they did not respond to the flash flood disaster as it unfolded.

Four, they did not evaluate their disaster response.

A team failed the 130 people who died (including the 27 at Camp Mystic) and added to the trauma of so many in Kerr County.  They should all be investigated and held accountable.  The State of Texas is purposely choosing to do otherwise.

Mysterious 3rd Data Center Finally Comes Forward

Cipher Digital, the company behind the Colchis Data Center, would not put San Angelo on its map.  This morning Cipher makes its first public appearance at Tom Green County Commissioners Court.  It's item #8 on the agenda.

San Angelo Mayor Tom Thompson steered me to Cipher in June.  Lots has happened in the interim.  Cipher Digital received conditional base load designation for their project just outside city limits on City Farm Road (adjacent to the Skybox/Emergent Data Center site).

The Mayor feared this would happen.  Months ago he wrote:

"ERCOT and AEP appear to be prioritizing the non-city property project for power allotments."

Wall Street took note of Cipher's ERCOT base load designation for Colchis.

Emerging from the shadows is Lee Bratcher, Cipher Digital’s head of policy and government affairs.  He of the silver tongue will likely be effusive in his praise of local collaboration and extoll the virtues of their Colchis site.  

Expect no real details.  This is the beginning of an effort to obtain public subsidies, significant public subsidies.  Tom Green County has been very generous with tax abatements for prior solar/energy project.  The State of Texas has a giant pocketbook for economic development. TechGods have tapped that before and will do so again.

Cipher Digital is a former bitcoin mining company that is repurposing everything for AI.  The public is not supportive of handouts to companies chasing obscene wealth at their expense.  Cipher just needs to convince a majority of Commissioners and that process begins today.

Update:  The silver tongue is flowing for those watching Commissioners' Court live.  Lee Bratcher joined Cipher in early 2026.  The press release for his hiring noted:

Mr. Bratcher worked closely with policymakers, regulators, and industry leaders in the energy and data center spaces, contributing to the research and development of two pieces of legislation passed during the 87th Texas Legislative Session, as well as two additional bills enacted during the 88th Session and signed into law.

Bratcher dropped the name Bill Blevins, Cipher's Head of Grid Strategies:

Blevins joins Cipher from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (“ERCOT”), where he served as Director of Grid Coordination.

That announcement came in June.

The project is yet to be approved but Cipher already gave AEP $17 million to prepare their grid connection.  Yes, things are coming into focus.    

Beacon Offers Mapslop

I found an error on Beacon Data Centers campus map in early August.  After checking back mid-September, it was still there.  I used their contact form to directly inform them.  

I received a form e-mail thanking me for my support.  That seemed a bit excessive, shifting a "simple FYI/you might want to correct that" into full blown backing for their monstrous Westline data center/power plant.  

I can only hope our country's bad relations with Canada has Beacon looking at home for new data centers.  Otherwise, Canadian geography isn't what I expected.  

Texas is not Alabama and never has been, just as a simple message is anything but full support.  Take your errors elsewhere gentlemen.  Please.

Update 9-22-26:  What's with data centers and maps?  Cipher Digital wouldn't put San Angelo on its map at all.  Cipher has finally emerged from the shadows and will meet with Tom Green County Commissioners Court today.

Cipher Digital's Colchis (San Angelo) Gets Base Power Nod from ERCOT

Proactive reported: 

Under the Electric Reliability Council of Texas’s Batch Zero procedure, Cipher Digital said 1.1 gigawatts received conditional base-load status, comprising Stingray’s 100 megawatts and Colchis’s one gigawatt. 

That status means ERCOT’s grid study treats the capacity as established.

Power connections still need to be authorized. 

The Colchis site is a joint venture where Cipher Digital expects to own 95 of the equity.  Cipher has been growing its equity stake since it first announced the project in November 2025.  

Cipher Digital essentially beat the competition to the punch around their grid connection.  

Colchis site includes fully executed direct interconnection agreement with American Electric Power for dual interconnection facility.  

The joint venture partner has never been identified.  These guys don't like revealing anything.  Cipher Digital didn't put San Angelo or Tom Green County on their map.  Their description of the project places it in "West Texas."

San Angelo Mayor Tom Thompson thought Colchis might leapfrog the Skybox/Emergent Data Center as the two applications targeted the same power source, the Red Creek substation.  

Colchis, despite being proximate to the Skybox/Emergent site, is not in City limits.  They will need to negotiate access to water, sewage, fire and police services.  I can't imagine they would provide all that themselves.  

Cryptobrifeing noted:

The company is also developing natural-gas laterals capable of supporting up to 2.5 GW of on-site generation. That behind-the-meter generation capacity gives Cipher the ability to power facilities with its own gas-fired generation when grid power is unavailable or uneconomical.

Residents of Northeast San Angelo could have both a data center and power plant near them.

Cipher recently raised $810 million through Stingray Compute LLC secured notes.  Fitch Ratings noted:

Stingray Compute LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cipher Digital, is issuing approximately $810 million of senior secured notes to fund construction of a 70 MW critical IT load (100 MW gross) purpose-built HPC data center in Andrews, TX. The total budgeted project cost is approximately $826 million, including about $735 million of capex, $38 million of capitalized interest during construction, a $45 million DSRA and $8 million in fees and expenses. Sources and uses reflect a 98% loan-to-cost ratio, resulting in $810 million in debt and $16 million in equity contribution net of $64 million of capex reimbursement. 

The data center comprises two phases — a 10 MW Network Hall and a 60 MW Data Hall — with rent commencing for each phase upon its completion. The campus is 100% pre-leased to Amazon Data Services, Inc. under a 15-year triple-net lease with rent payments and operating expenses unconditionally guaranteed by Amazon.com, Inc. (AA-/Stable). The assets, rights, responsibilities, and cash flows of the project are ring-fenced within a bankruptcy-remote special purpose entity.

Colchis may have power in its sights, however financing will be the next big hurdle.  The State of Texas, despite its talk, remains accommodative to data center development.  Locals effectively have no say.

Town Hall Concerns Reporting: Crickets

I wondered why there were no news stories on the specific town hall meetings held in various City of San Angelo Districts.  After attending one, I understood why.

The first part of the program involved personalizing the respective City Council representative.  The second had new City Manager Phillip Urrutia give essentially a state of the City update.  The third "took the hall" out of the town hall meeting as citizens did not get to hear one another.  

The format had attendees wander to different areas to share their concerns with Urrutia or various Assistant City Managers/Department Heads.  

It harkened back to the Animal Services Open Houses held by former Shelter Chief Morgan Chegwidden in early 2024.  Those were held in response to a series of complaints citizens made to their City Council representatives.  I wrote at the time:

San Angelo is five years into programming that kept unwanted dogs out of the shelter. It should be no surprise that they fill the streets. 

Councilman Harry Thomas said just that at the Council's last meeting. “There are more dogs on the streets than there’s ever been.” 

Yes there are. It's from years of "letting them roam unaltered."

I attended the specific Town Hall meeting to share an animal related concern.  It dealt with an irresponsible citizen who'd abandoned over 40 cats and two dogs.  The City claimed this person was a "cat colony manager" even though they'd never fixed their pets, did not consistently provide food/water, nor provide veterinary care for any sick or injured pets.  Numerous pets were poisoned on their watch.  

This owner was reported many times for poor treatment of their animals and consistently failing to follow city ordinances  (spay/neuter, microchip, animal cruelty).

I did not get to share my concern as I needed to leave the meeting at 6:45 pm to care for some of our critters and the City Manager was still presenting.   

This also happened to me relative to Mayor Thompson's Data Center Town Hall but that was available to watch later on video. 

Time will reveal if City Council hears a report as to common constituent concerns across districts and any plans to address those at a high level.   

Six meetings, one video and no opportunity to hear specifics as to why people attended.  Did someone did not want to get lectured by a 92 year old lady, like Rep. August Pfluger?

Texas Energy: Expensive Only One Way

Texans who invested in home solar generation have not gotten a return on their investment as Texas' energy grid added fees while electricity providers dropped the price they paid generators for their power.

Contrast this with power devouring data centers, who have their hand out for giant tax breaks (sales, property) and direct economic development subsidies.  

Part of the reason for buying a solar system came from being left out in the bitter cold for five days in February 2021.  No one apologized to us them.  We are back there once again, economically.  No one is listening to us now.

Data centers that generate their own power stand to advance in our political climate.  Beacon Data Center's Westline Energy Infrastructure plans to install 240 gas fired generators and 40 diesel generators to power their data center complex.  Their "hot economic opportunity" stands to further heat and dry out our natural ecosystem.

A 5,000 gallon diesel spill in Spring Creek or Dove Creek would be disastrous.  That very thing just happened in New Jersey.  

Small person investment is rapidly eroded while the big boys rake it in.  Citizens are tired of getting the short end of every deal.  

Businesses and elected officials should take note.  There is little evidence that is happening.  

Trump II Wants Data to Reign

 Trump II recently wrote "Let data reign" on Truth Social.

"If you want to pay lower taxes, if you want to create tremendous wealth, if you want your house to be more valuable and everything else, you're going to want a data center," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "If you want to go through poverty, crime and squalor, I would say don't approve data centers." 

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick chalked up opposition to "propaganda by our adversaries" and said the benefits to communities are "obvious." 

Trump's former AI czar, David Sacks, asserted that "misinformation" was to blame for the  backlash and said "no one is trying to force these data centers down anyone's throats."

Actually a collection of someones is trying to just that, Mr. Sacks.  It's a combination of elected and unelected government officials, TechGods and their financiers (private equity underwriters (PEU)),  Sacks knows them well. 

Surely data exists on home valuations in close proximity to data centers.  I can't imagine it supports Trump II's assertions (which often are not fact based).  That said, if homes across from data centers become unsellable then that data could be missing.  Abandoned homes often become magnets for poverty, crime and squalor.  

The benefits of data centers to billionaires Trump II, Howard Lutnick and David Sacks are obvious.  The investor class has multiple ways to profit from data center proliferation.  They can front run government policy and federal budget priorities.  Annual financial disclosures will indicate how these "public servants" are profiting from their private holdings.

Also, Mr. Lutnick's getting a multimillion dollar house from Jeffrey Epstein for $10 is not available to common folk.

Trump II and his kingly court want data to reign.

 

Data cannot be a sovereign power.  It should not be chief of state or have the authority of a monarch.

TechGods's social media usurped children's brains, their physical/emotional safety, social development and individual autonomy.  With AI they are shooting to distort whole societies.  

Data is incapable of reigning.  It's purveyors have shown their ability to feign to maximize their financial position and personal power.  "Everyone can have a penthouse" and "AI will cure cancer."  

Trump II, Lutnick and Sacks are selling something.  It's called their own book.  Normally, those come with disclosures but we are in a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) world.  Leon Black is telling us that very thing with his non-testimony.

The only data that rains is what they want us to see.

--cross posted at PEUReport as private equity plays a key role in data center rollout