In a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul, nearly 500 small business owners from across New York state urged the governor to pass legislation that would establish a temporary moratorium on new data center construction.
Vinny Aliperti, a winemaker and co-owner of Billsboro Winery in Ontario County, signed the letter.
His concerns center around how a warming climate is having a negative impact on his industry.
“We are definitely targeted because we are rural and less populated and have a little less political capital and I’d love to see our local politicians standup,” said Aliperti.
This letter follows a rally at the state Capitol two weeks ago where lawmakers and advocates pushed for the passage of proposed legislation before the end of session, which is scheduled to be June 4.
The proposal calls for a temporary three-year moratorium on the issuing of permits for new data centers in the state.
Lawmakers say it’s to allow the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the Public Service Commission to study the impacts the centers would have on their surrounding communities.
Critics say they have concerns over rising energy costs, air, and noise pollution, but supports say these concerns may not apply to all data centers.
“Obviously, I speak on behalf of what we’re doing on our project,” said Bradley Wells, senior project development manager for Stream Data Centers. “I really implore people for the standpoint of what we’re doing to judge a project on its individual merits and not get caught up in wider industry in either legacy technologies or examples of poor development.”
Stream Data Centers is developing a data center in Genesse County. Wells says it’s an “enterprise-class data center” that has a low generator count which has less of an impact on emissions.
Spectrum News 1 reached out to the governor’s officer for its perspective and has not heard back.