“We celebrate the passage of the data center moratorium, the first legislation of its kind in the country, to address the enormous strain these facilities place on our communities,” said CANY’s executive director, Rebecca Garrard, in a statement. 

On the final day of New York’s legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill to place a one-year pause on large data center projects. Then on July 14, Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order to pause the construction of large-scale (50 MW+) data centers statewide.

Both groups joined their voices with more than a hundred environmental groups in calling for the statewide moratorium, and have joined protests at the state capitol in Albany. PUSH participated in an “Energy Hog” bus tour around the state, holding rallies at proposed development sites,  such as the $2-billion, 500,000 square-foot AI center proposed by developers near the town of Tonawanda. The Niagara river passes through Tonawanda, where residents started a petition to stop the project. 

“This legislation creates a one year pause on new large-scale data center permits and requires a closer examination of the impacts these projects could have on our electrical grid, our water systems, our infrastructure, and our communities,” said State Senator Jeremy Zellner, who represents Tonawanda, and voted for the bill. “What this bill is saying is that projects of this scale deserve a closer look.”

The proposed legislation would require a statewide study on the impacts of data center development, data centers to rely on renewable energy by 2040, and help fund projects that benefit local communities. 

“Massive corporate data centers move forward with peddling information to fascist special interests, with no care for their destruction of local water resources and collateral increases on utility costs for already strained consumers,” said Garrard.